Related Experiment Videos
Meta-analysis of observational studies with unmeasured confounders
1Simon Fraser University.
Abstract:
Meta-analysis of observational studies is an exciting new area of innovation in statistical science. Unlike randomized controlled trials, which are the gold standard for proving causation, observational studies are prone to biases including confounding. In this article, we describe a novel Bayesian procedure to control for a confounder that is missing across the sequence of studies in a meta-analysis. We motivate the discussion with the example of a meta-analysis of cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies examining the relationship between oral contraceptives and endometriosis. An important unmeasured confounder is dysmennoreah, which is an indication for oral contraceptive use. To adjust for unmeasured confounding, we combine random effects models with probabilistic sensitivity analysis techniques. Information about the unmeasured confounder is incorporated into the analysis via prior distributions, and we use MCMC to sample from posterior.
Related Concept Videos
Confounding in Epidemiological Studies
Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...
Observational Studies
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One example of...
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies.
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Mechanistic Models: Compartment Models in Individual and Population Analysis