Squeezing observational data for better causal inference: Methods and examples for prevention research.
Int J Psychol
; 52(2): 96-105, 2017 Apr.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27094382
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are typically viewed as the gold standard for causal inference. This is because effects of interest can be identified with the fewest assumptions, especially imbalance in background characteristics. Yet because conducting RCTs are expensive, time consuming and sometimes unethical, observational studies are frequently used to study causal associations. In these studies, imbalance, or confounding, is usually controlled with multiple regression, which entails strong assumptions. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe strengths and weaknesses of several methods to control for confounding in observational studies, and to demonstrate their use in cross-sectional dataset that use patient registration data from the Juan Pablo II Primary Care Clinic in La Pintana-Chile. The dataset contains responses from 5855 families who provided complete information on family socio-demographics, family functioning and health problems among their family members. We employ regression adjustment, stratification, restriction, matching, propensity score matching, standardisation and inverse probability weighting to illustrate the approaches to better causal inference in non-experimental data and compare results. By applying study design and data analysis techniques that control for confounding in different ways than regression adjustment, researchers may strengthen the scientific relevance of observational studies.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade
/
Saúde da Família
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Estudos Observacionais como Assunto
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
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Adult
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
America do sul
/
Chile
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Int J Psychol
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Chile
País de publicação:
Reino Unido