Evaluation of statistical methods used in the analysis of interrupted time series studies: a simulation study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Interrupted time series (ITS) studies are frequently used to evaluate the effects of population-level interventions or exposures. However, examination of the performance of statistical methods for this design has received relatively little attention.

Methods

We simulated continuous data to compare the performance of a set of statistical methods under a range of scenarios which included different level and slope changes, varying lengths of series and magnitudes of lag-1 autocorrelation. We also examined the performance of the Durbin-Watson (DW) test for detecting autocorrelation.

Results

All methods yielded unbiased estimates of the level and slope changes over all scenarios. The magnitude of autocorrelation was underestimated by all methods, however, restri

SUBMITTER: Turner SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8403376 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature