Assignment-Control Plots: A Visual Companion for Causal Inference Study Design.

ABSTRACT: An important step for any causal inference study design is understanding the distribution of the subjects in terms of measured baseline covariates. However, not all baseline variation is equally important. We propose a set of visualizations that reduce the space of measured covariates into two components of baseline variation important to the design of an observational causal inference study: a propensity score summarizing baseline variation associated with treatment assignment, and prognostic score summarizing baseline variation associated with the untreated potential outcome. These assignment-control plots and variations thereof visualize study design trade-offs and illustrate core methodological concepts in causal inference. As a practical demonstration, we apply assignment-contr

SUBMITTER: Aikens RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9916271 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature