Discussion of Schuemie et al: "A plea to stop using the case-control design in retrospective database studies".

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

12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

1. Improving rheumatoid arthritis comparative effectiveness research through causal inference principles: systematic review using a target trial emulation framework.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2020
   Pooled it
2. Emulating a target trial in case-control designs: an application to statins and colorectal cancer.International journal of epidemiology · 2020
   Trial
3. Benzodiazepine exposure during early pregnancy and risk of miscarriage: dose-response, half-life classification, and individual agents.Archives of women's mental health · 2026
   Article
4. Clinically apparent Helicobacter pylori infection and the risk of incident Alzheimer's disease: A population-based nested case-control study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024
   Article
5. Later-age neutering causes lower risk of early-onset urinary incontinence than early neutering-a VetCompass target trial emulation study.PloS one · 2024
   Article
6. Risk of thromboembolic events associated with different multiple myeloma regimens in Taiwan: a nested case-control study.Journal of thrombosis and thrombolysis · 2023
   Article
7. Association of injury after prescription opioid initiation with risk for opioid-related adverse events among older Medicare beneficiaries in the United States: A nested case-control study.PLoS medicine · 2022
   Article
8. Core concepts in pharmacoepidemiology: Fundamentals of the cohort and case-control study designs.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2022
   Review
9. Sodium-containing acetaminophen and cardiovascular outcomes in individuals with and without hypertension.European heart journal · 2022
   Article
10. Introduction to Matching in Case-Control and Cohort Studies.Annals of clinical epidemiology · 2022
    Article
11. Conducting Real-world Evidence Studies on the Clinical Outcomes of Diabetes Treatments.Endocrine reviews · 2021
    Article
12. Pharmacoepidemiology for nephrologists (part 1): concept, applications and considerations for study design.Clinical kidney journal · 2021
    Review

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  A plea to stop using the case-control design in retrospective database studies.2019

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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