ReviewJournal of clinical epidemiology2017
Adjusting for unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized longitudinal studies: a methodological review.
Review in Journal of clinical epidemiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
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- Application of causal inference methods in individual-participant data meta-analyses in medicine: addressing data handling and reporting gaps with new proposed reporting guidelines.BMC medical research methodology · 2024Pooled it
- Quantitative bias analysis in practice: review of software for regression with unmeasured confounding.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Pooled it
- Association is not causation: treatment effects cannot be estimated from observational data in heart failure.European heart journal · 2018Pooled it
- Real-world calibration and transportability of the Disease Recovery Evaluation and Modification (DREaM) randomized clinical trial in adult Medicaid beneficiaries with recent-onset schizophrenia.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2023Trial
- The Wrist and Radius Injury Surgical Trial: 12-Month Outcomes from a Multicenter International Randomized Clinical Trial.Plastic and reconstructive surgery · 2020Trial
- Identifying Candidate Mediators Linking ADHD Symptoms and Internalising Problems in Adolescence: An Exploratory Longitudinal Mediation Analysis.Journal of attention disorders · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Return on Investment of U.S. Army Holistic Health and Fitness Performance Teams: A Matched Difference-in-Differences Study of Readiness and Economic Outcomes.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Causal inference in real-world dementia research: a systematic review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Eating Disorder Risk and Diagnosis Among East Asian Youth in the United States: Findings From the Healthy Minds Study, 2020-2023.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Quasi-randomization to Cannabinoid Condition in Studies of US Legal Market Cannabis: Characteristics of Accepters Versus Decliners of Condition Assignment.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026Observational
- Failure to rescue after esophagectomy: Perspective on the esophagectomy failure to rescue assessment, trends, and evaluation study.JTCVS open · 2026Article
- Association between cumulative blood pressure and the risk of cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults: a longitudinal study over 16 years.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- "Two-stage resection of synchronous liver metastases in colorectal cancer leads to a survival benefit: a retrospective comparative cohort study".Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2025Article
- Causal estimation of time-varying treatments in observational studies: a scoping review of methods, applications, and missing data practices.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- Negative control-calibrated difference-in-difference analyses: addressing unmeasured confounding in RWD with application to racial/ethnic differences.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Incidence of Side Effects Associated With Acetaminophen in People Aged 65 Years or More: A Prospective Cohort Study Using Data From the Clinical Practice Research Datalink.Arthritis care & research · 2025Article
- Article
- Hemorrhoids and cardiovascular disease: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2025Article
- Triangulating Instrumental Variable, confounder adjustment and difference-in-difference methods for comparative effectiveness research in observational data.Wellcome open research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesMotivated by recent calls to use electronic health records for research, we reviewed the application and development of methods for addressing the bias from unmeasured confounding in longitudinal data. STUDY DESIGN AND
settingMethodological review of existing literature. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for articles addressing the threat to causal inference from unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized longitudinal health data through quasi-experimental analysis.
resultsAmong the 121 studies included for review, 84 used instrumental variable analysis (IVA), of which 36 used lagged or historical instruments. Difference-in-differences (DiD) and fixed effects (FE) models were found in 29 studies. Five of these combined IVA with DiD or FE to try to mitigate for time-dependent confounding. Other less frequently used methods included prior event rate ratio adjustment, regression discontinuity nested within pre-post studies, propensity score calibration, perturbation analysis, and negative control outcomes.
conclusionWell-established econometric methods such as DiD and IVA are commonly used to address unmeasured confounding in nonrandomized longitudinal studies, but researchers often fail to take full advantage of available longitudinal information. A range of promising new methods have been developed, but further studies are needed to understand their relative performance in different contexts before they can be recommended for widespread use.
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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.