Using Sensitivity Analyses for Unobserved Confounding to Address Covariate Measurement Error in Propensity Score Methods

[Propensity score methods for creating covariate balance in observational studies].

Randomization of treatment assignment in experiments generates treatment groups with approximately balanced baseline covariates. However, in observational studies, where treatment assignment is not random, patients in the active treatment and control groups often differ on crucial covariates that are related to outcomes. These covariate imbalances can lead to biased treatment effect estimates. ...

Covariate balancing propensity score

The propensity score plays a central role in a variety of causal inference settings. In particular, matching and weighting methods based on the estimated propensity score have become increasingly common in the analysis of observational data. Despite their popularity and theoretical appeal, the main practical difficulty of these methods is that the propensity score must be estimated. Researchers...

Propensity score methods for confounding control in nonexperimental research.

PROPENSITy SCORE fOR CONfOuNDING ADjuSTMENT IN HEALTH CARE DATABASES Propensity score methodology for confounding control in health care utilization databases

Propensity score (PS) methodology is a common approach to control for confounding in nonexperimental studies of treatment effects using health care utilization databases. This methodology offers researchers many advantages compared with conventional multivariate models: it directly focuses on the determinants of treatment choice, facilitating the understanding of the clinical decision-making pr...

The z-difference can be used to measure covariate balance in matched propensity score analyses.

OBJECTIVES The propensity score (PS) method is increasingly used to assess treatment effects in nonrandomized trials. Although there are several methods to use the PS for analysis, matching treated and untreated patients by the PS is recommended by most researchers among other reasons because this allows assessing covariate balance before and after matching. Although the standardized difference...