title: Best (but oft-forgotten) practices: propensity score methods in clinical nutrition research.
abstract: In observational studies, treatment assignment is a nonrandom process and treatment groups may not be comparable in their baseline characteristics, a phenomenon known as confounding. Propensity score (PS) methods can be used to achieve comparability of treated and nontreated groups in terms of their observed covariates and, as such, control for confounding in estimating treatment effects. In this article, we provide a step-by-step guidance on how to use PS methods. For illustrative purposes, we used simulated data based on an observational study of the relation between oral nutritional supplementation and hospital length of stay. We focused on the key aspects of PS analysis, including covariate selection, PS estimation, covariate balance assessment, treatment effect estimation, and reporting. PS matching, stratification, covariate adjustment, and weighting are discussed. R codes and example data are provided to show the different steps in a PS analysis.
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands; and Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M Sanni
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands; and Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rolf Hh
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Groenwold
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands; and Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands o.h.klungel@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Olaf H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Klungel
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D064887:Observational Studies as Topic; D057216:Propensity Score; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: balance; confounding; matching; model selection; propensity score