Starting right: aligning eligibility and treatment assignment at time zero when emulating a target trial

BMJ, vol. 392, pp. e084909

Abstract

This article provides methodological guidance when emulating a target trial with longitudinal observational data by showing how to align eligibility criteria and treatment assignment at the start of follow-up to prevent design induced biases, such as immortal time and selection bias.

Authors 5

1. Edouard L Fu corresponding Aachen Department of Clinical Epidemiology

   Leiden University · Brigham and Women's Hospital · Harvard University · Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, 2333 ZA Leiden, Netherlands

   Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

2. Michael Oscar Harhay

   University of Pennsylvania

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Clinical Trials Innovation, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

3. Sebastian Schneeweiß

   Brigham and Women's Hospital · Harvard University

   Affiliation as printed

   Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

4. Rishi J. Desai

   Brigham and Women's Hospital · Harvard University

   Affiliation as printed

   Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

5. Miguel Ángel Hernán

   Harvard University

   Affiliation as printed

   CAUSALab and Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA