The effect of dichotomization of skewed adjustment covariates in the analysis of clinical trials.

ABSTRACT: Baseline imbalance in covariates associated with the primary outcome in clinical trials leads to bias in the reporting of results. Standard practice is to mitigate that bias by stratifying by those covariates in the randomization. Additionally, for continuously valued outcome variables, precision of estimates can be (and should be) improved by controlling for those covariates in analysis. Continuously valued covariates are commonly thresholded for the purpose of performing stratified randomization, with participants being allocated to arms such that balance between arms is achieved within each stratum. Often the thresholding consists of a simple dichotomization. For simplicity, it is also common practice to dichotomize the covariate when controlling for it at the analysis stage. This latte

SUBMITTER: Herschtal A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10009982 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature