Demystifying Clone-Censor-Weighting to Studying Treatment Initiation Windows: An Example Using Publicly Available Synthetic Medicare Claims Data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Clone-censor-weighting (CCW) can compare treatment regimens that are initially indistinguishable (such as starting treatment within specific time windows) without using landmarks or creating immortal time. The causal contrasts estimated in these cases and the analyses themselves can become quite complex; however.

Objective

Provide a tutorial on CCW for comparing initiation windows and illustrate the causal contrasts underlying such comparisons.

Methods

We identified patients with myocardial infarctions without past aspirin or clopidogrel use in Medicare's synthetic public data files. We assigned "clones" to three regimens: (1) initiation within 30 days; (2) initiation within 90 days; or 3) initiation from 30 to 90 days. Clones were censored when deviating f

SUBMITTER: Webster-Clark M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12450615 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature