Quantitative assessment of unobserved confounding is mandatory in nonrandomized intervention studies.
OBJECTIVE
In nonrandomized intervention studies unequal distribution of patient characteristics in the groups under study may hinder comparability of prognosis and therefore lead to confounding bias. Our objective was to review methods to control for observed confounding, as well as unobserved confounding


METHODS
We reviewed epidemiologic literature on methods to control for observed and unobserved confounding.


RESULTS
Various methods are available to control for observed (i.e., measured) confounders, either in the design of data collection (i.e., matching, restriction), or in data analysis (i.e., multivariate analysis, propensity score analysis). Methods to quantify unobserved confounding can be categorized in methods with and without prior knowledge of the effect estimate. Without prior knowledge of the effect estimate, unobserved confounding can be quantified using different types of sensitivity analysis. When prior knowledge is available, the size of unobserved confounding can be estimated directly by comparison with prior knowledge.


CONCLUSIONS
Unobserved confounding should be addressed in a quantitative way to value the inferences of nonrandomized intervention studies.
Groenwold
R H H
RH
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical center Utrecht, The Netherlands. r.h.h.groenwold@umcutrecht.nl
Hak
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Hoes
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D000367:Age Factors; D015982:Bias; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018579:Patient Selection; D044382:Population Groups
D007252:Influenza Vaccines