ArticleCurrent epidemiology reports2015
The active comparator, new user study design in pharmacoepidemiology: historical foundations and contemporary application.
Article in Current epidemiology reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 416 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
416 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sodium Glucose Co-Transporter 2 Inhibitors and Ventricular Arrhythmias in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies.Drug safety · 2026Pooled it
- Clinical outcomes associated with drug-drug interactions involving buprenorphine: a systematic review.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2026Pooled it
- Association of potentially inappropriate medications with rehospitalisation and death within three months in older patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Pooled it
- Identifying, handling and impact of immortal time bias on addressing treatment effects in observational studies using routinely collected data.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of herpes zoster infection, antivirals and vaccination on risk of developing dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Pooled it
- Safety of sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim for the treatment of bacterial infection in outpatient settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis with active comparator disproportionality analysis.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Safety of sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim for the treatment of bacterial infection in outpatient settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis with active comparator disproportionality analysis.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Use of sensitivity analyses to assess uncontrolled confounding from unmeasured variables in observational, active comparator pharmacoepidemiologic studies: a systematic review.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- SGLT2 Inhibitors and the Risk of Infections in Type 2 Diabetes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Real-World Evidence.Journal of diabetes research · 2025Pooled it
- Reporting of Observational Studies Explicitly Aiming to Emulate Randomized Trials: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Statins, Mortality, and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events Among US Veterans With Chronic Kidney Disease.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- More intensive therapy as more effective treatment for frail patients with multiple myeloma [corrected].Blood advances · 2023Trial
- Bowel Obstruction/Ileus Associated With the Use of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists: A Nationwide Database Study.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Initiation of SGLT2 Inhibitors Versus DPP-4 Inhibitors in Metformin Users and Risk of Incident Depression: A Nationwide, Claims-Based Active-Comparator New-User Study.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Real-world treatment patterns and cost per patient achieving treatment targets among tirzepatide and semaglutide initiators in US patients with type 2 diabetes.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2026Article
- Risk of Neurological Adverse Events Between PD-L1 and PD-1 Inhibitors in South Korean Patients with Lung Cancer: A Target Trial Emulation Framework.Clinical drug investigation · 2026Article
- Statin Use and Arterial Calcification in the General Population: A Longitudinal Analysis and a Negative Control Population.Clinical drug investigation · 2026Article
- Time to Insulin Initiation Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Treated With Second-Line Antidiabetic Drugs.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Urogenital Infection Risk Associated With SGLT2 Inhibitors Versus DPP-4 Inhibitors in Type 2 Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease: A Nationwide Target Trial Emulation.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Long-Term Association Between GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Use and Incident Pancreatic Cancer: A Propensity Score-Matched Retrospective Cohort Study Using the TriNetX Network.Journal of gastrointestinal cancer · 2026Article
356 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Better understanding of biases related to selective prescribing of, and adherence to, preventive treatments has led to improvements in the design and analysis of pharmacoepidemiologic studies. One influential development has been the "active comparator, new user" study design, which seeks to emulate the design of a head-to-head randomized controlled trial. In this review, we first discuss biases that may affect pharmacoepidemiologic studies and describe their direction and magnitude in a variety of settings. We then present the historical foundations of the active comparator, new user study design and explain how this design conceptually mitigates biases leading to a paradigm shift in pharmacoepidemiology. We offer practical guidance on the implementation of the study design using administrative databases. Finally, we provide an empirical example in which the active comparator, new user study design addresses biases that have previously impeded pharmacoepidemiologic studies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.