The Impact of Nondifferential Exposure Misclassification on the Performance of Propensity Scores for Continuous and Binary Outcomes: A Simulation Study.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:To investigate the ability of the propensity score (PS) to reduce confounding bias in the presence of nondifferential misclassification of treatment, using simulations. METHODS:Using an example from the pregnancy medication safety literature, we carried out simulations to quantify the effect of nondifferential misclassification of treatment under varying scenarios of sensitivity and specificity, exposure prevalence (10%, 50%), outcome type (continuous and binary), true outcome (null and increased risk), confounding direction, and different PS applications (matching, stratification, weighting, regression), and obtained measures of bias and 95% confidence interval coverage. RESULTS:All methods were subject to substantial bias toward the null due to nondifferential exposure misclassif

SUBMITTER: Wood ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5854503 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature