[The use of propensity score matching for evaluation of the effects of nursing interventions].
BACKGROUND
Nursing intervention studies often suffer from a selection bias introduced by failure of random assignment. Evaluation with selection bias could under or over-estimate any intervention's effects. PS matching (PSM) can reduce a selection bias through matching similar Propensity Scores (PS). PS is defined as the conditional probability of being treated given the individual's covariates and it can be reused to balance the covariates of two groups.


OBJECTIVE
This study was done to assess the significance of PSM as an alternative evaluation method of nursing interventions.


METHODS
An intervention study for patients with some baseline individual characteristic differences between two groups was used for this demonstration. The result of a t-test with PSM was compared with a t-test without matching.


RESULTS
The level of HbA1c at 12 months after baseline was different between the two groups in terms of matching or not.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated the effects of a quasi-random assignment. Evaluation using PSM can reduce a selection bias impact that affects the result of the nursing intervention. Analyzing nursing research more objectively to reduce selection bias using PSM is needed.
Lee
Suk Jeong
SJ
Red Cross College of Nursing, Korea. LSJ1109@redcross.ac.kr
Yoo
Ji Soo
JS
Shin
Mikyung
M
Park
Chang Gi
CG
Lee
Hyun Chul
HC
Choi
Eun Jin
EJ
D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing*; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D015983:Selection Bias
D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human