Corticosteroids in COVID-19: Optimizing Observational Research through Target Trial Emulations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Observational research provides a unique opportunity to learn causal effects when randomized trials are unavailable, but obtaining the correct estimates hinges on a multitude of design and analysis choices. We illustrate the advantages of modern causal inference methods and compare to standard research practice to estimate the effect of corticosteroids on mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in an observational dataset. We use several large RCTs to benchmark our results.

Methods

Our retrospective data consists of 3,298 COVID-19 patients hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian March 1-May 15, 2020. We design our study using the target trial framework. We estimate the effect of an intervention consisting of six days of corticosteroids administered at the time o

SUBMITTER: Hoffman KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9196111 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature