Citation

Hernán MA, Sauer BC, Hernández-Díaz S, Platt R, Shrier I. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 2016; 79: 70-75.

Affiliation

Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jclinepi.2016.04.014

PMID

27237061

Abstract

Many analyses of observational data are attempts to emulate a target trial. The emulation of the target trial may fail when researchers deviate from simple principles that guide the design and analysis of randomized experiments. We review a framework to describe and prevent biases, including immortal time bias, that result from a failure to align start of follow-up, specification of eligibility, and treatment assignment. We review some analytic approaches to avoid these problem in comparative effectiveness or safety research.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en