Methods for the assessment of selection bias in drug safety during pregnancy studies using electronic medical data.

ABSTRACT: Electronic health data are routinely used for population drug studies. Due to the ethical dilemma in carrying out experimental drug studies on pregnant women, the effects of medication usage during pregnancy on fetal and maternal outcomes are largely evaluated using this data collection medium. One major limitation in this type of study is the delayed inclusion of pregnancies in the cohort. For example, in the province of Quebec, Canada, a major pregnancy cohort only captured pregnancies after 20 weeks gestation. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate three methods that can be used to assess the extent of selection bias due to the delayed inclusion of pregnancies. We use causal directed acyclic graphs to explain the source of this selection bias. In an example involving a cohort of p

SUBMITTER: Schnitzer ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6149369 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature