Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27578690›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2016

A Simulation Platform for Quantifying Survival Bias: An Application to Research on Determinants of Cognitive Decline.

Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, Eric J Tchetgen Tchetgen, Melinda C Power, Jennifer Weuve, Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda, Jessica R Marden, Eric Vittinghoff, Niels Keiding, M Maria Glymour

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
53citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  11. Evidence triangulation in health research.European journal of epidemiology · 2025
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  14. Integrating causal human genetics andFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Elizabeth Rose Mayeda
Eric J Tchetgen Tchetgen
Melinda C Power
Jennifer Weuve
Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda
Jessica R Marden
Eric Vittinghoff
Niels Keiding
M Maria Glymour

Funding

Research Training in Age-Related Cognitive DisordersT32AG027668 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI MARILYN S. ALBERT · 2007 to 2026
$6.3M
Identification and Inference for Longitudinal Causal Mediation Analysis in HIVR01AI104459 · NIAID · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI SHPITSER, ILYA, VANDERWEELE, TYLER · 2013 to 2017
$2.0M
Semiparametric Methods for Gene-environment InteractionR01ES020337 · NIEHS · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI TCHETGEN TCHETGEN, ERIC JOEL · 2012 to 2015
$1.4M
Validation of Portable XRF for In Vivo Measurement of Heavy Metal ExposuresR21ES024700 · NIEHS · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI NIE, LINDA H, WEISSKOPF, MARC G · 2015 to 2018
$712k
Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and to Disability in Older AdultsR21ES020404 · NIEHS · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI WEUVE, JENNIFER · 2012 to 2013
$458k
A new Statistical Framework to Tame Selection Bias in Health SciencesR21AI113251 · NIAID · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI PHIRI, KELESITSE, TCHETGEN TCHETGEN, ERIC JOEL · 2014 to 2015
$449k
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI104459NIAID NIH HHS R21 AI113251NIA NIH HHS T32 AG027668NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES020337NIEHS NIH HHS R21 ES020404NIEHS NIH HHS R21 ES024700
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Bias due to selective mortality is a potential concern in many studies and is especially relevant in cognitive aging research because cognitive impairment strongly predicts subsequent mortality. Biased estimation of the effect of an exposure on rate of cognitive decline can occur when mortality is a common effect of exposure and an unmeasured determinant of cognitive decline and in similar settings. This potential is often represented as collider-stratification bias in directed acyclic graphs, but it is difficult to anticipate the magnitude of bias. In this paper, we present a flexible simulation platform with which to quantify the expected bias in longitudinal studies of determinants of cognitive decline. We evaluated potential survival bias in naive analyses under several selective survival scenarios, assuming that exposure had no effect on cognitive decline for anyone in the population. Compared with the situation with no collider bias, the magnitude of bias was higher when exposure and an unmeasured determinant of cognitive decline interacted on the hazard ratio scale to influence mortality or when both exposure and rate of cognitive decline influenced mortality. Bias was, as expected, larger in high-mortality situations. This simulation platform provides a flexible tool for evaluating biases in studies with high mortality, as is common in cognitive aging research.

Indexed as

BiasCognitive AgingAgedAged, 80 and overCognitive DysfunctionComputer SimulationHumansLinear ModelsMiddle AgedProportional Hazards ModelsSelection BiasSurvival Analysiscognitive declinecollider-stratification biasdementiaselection biasselective survivalsimulationsurvival biastruncation by death

Identifiers

PMID27578690
PMCPMC5013884

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.