Bias of time-varying exposure effects due to time-varying covariate measurement strategies.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

In studies of effects of time-varying drug exposures, adequate adjustment for time-varying covariates is often necessary to properly control for confounding. However, the granularity of the available covariate data may not be sufficiently fine, for example when covariates are measured for participants only when their exposure levels change.

Methods

To illustrate the impact of choices regarding the frequency of measuring time-varying covariates, we simulated data for a large target trial and for large observational studies, varying in covariate measurement design. Covariates were measured never, on a fixed-interval basis, or each time the exposure level switched. For the analysis, it was assumed that covariates remain constant in periods of no measurement. Cumulative

SUBMITTER: Penning de Vries BBL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9292390 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature