Integrate Meta-analysis into Specific Study (InMASS) for Estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effect

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Hanada, Keisuke, Kojima, Masahiro
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866913761010384896
author Hanada, Keisuke
Kojima, Masahiro
author_facet Hanada, Keisuke
Kojima, Masahiro
contents Randomized controlled trials are the standard method for estimating causal effects, ensuring sufficient statistical power and confidence through adequate sample sizes. However, achieving such sample sizes is often challenging. This study proposes a novel method for estimating the average treatment effect (ATE) in a target population by integrating and reconstructing information from previous trials using only summary statistics of outcomes and covariates through meta-analysis. The proposed approach combines meta-analysis, transfer learning, and weighted regression. Unlike existing methods that estimate the ATE based on the distribution of source trials, our method directly estimates the ATE for the target population. The proposed method requires only the means and variances of outcomes and covariates from the source trials and is theoretically valid under the covariate shift assumption, regardless of the covariate distribution in the source trials. Simulations and real-data analyses demonstrate that the proposed method yields a consistent estimator and achieves higher statistical power than the estimator derived solely from the target trial.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_21091
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Integrate Meta-analysis into Specific Study (InMASS) for Estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effect
Hanada, Keisuke
Kojima, Masahiro
Methodology
Randomized controlled trials are the standard method for estimating causal effects, ensuring sufficient statistical power and confidence through adequate sample sizes. However, achieving such sample sizes is often challenging. This study proposes a novel method for estimating the average treatment effect (ATE) in a target population by integrating and reconstructing information from previous trials using only summary statistics of outcomes and covariates through meta-analysis. The proposed approach combines meta-analysis, transfer learning, and weighted regression. Unlike existing methods that estimate the ATE based on the distribution of source trials, our method directly estimates the ATE for the target population. The proposed method requires only the means and variances of outcomes and covariates from the source trials and is theoretically valid under the covariate shift assumption, regardless of the covariate distribution in the source trials. Simulations and real-data analyses demonstrate that the proposed method yields a consistent estimator and achieves higher statistical power than the estimator derived solely from the target trial.
title Integrate Meta-analysis into Specific Study (InMASS) for Estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effect
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.21091