The Effect of Prenatal Treatments on Offspring Events in the Presence of Competing Events: An Application to a Randomized Trial of Fertility Therapies.

ABSTRACT: When studying the effect of a prenatal treatment on events in the offspring, failure to produce a live birth is a competing event for events in the offspring. A common approach to handle this competing event is reporting both the treatment-specific probabilities of live births and of the event of interest among live births. However, when the treatment affects the competing event, the latter probability cannot be interpreted as the causal effect among live births. Here we provide guidance for researchers interested in the effects of prenatal treatments on events in the offspring in the presence of the competing event "no live birth." We review the total effect of treatment on a composite event and the total effect of treatment on the event of interest. These causal effects are helpful for d

SUBMITTER: Chiu YH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7755108 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature