Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34238221›Full record

Trial reportBMC medical research methodology2021

RITS: a toolbox for assessing complex interventions via interrupted time series models.

Maricela Cruz, Marco A Pinto-Orellana, Daniel L Gillen, Hernando C Ombao

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC medical research methodology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–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

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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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

4 authors.

Maricela Cruz *Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. maricela.f.cruz@kp.org.ORCID 0000-0003-1644-9913
Marco A Pinto-Orellana *Department of Mechanical, Electronics and Chemical Engineering, Metropolitan Oslo University, Oslo, Norway.
Daniel L GillenDepartment of StatisticsUniversity of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA.
Hernando C OmbaoComputer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering DivisionKing Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

Funding

UC Irvine Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell CoreP50AG016573 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · PI LAFERLA, FRANK M · 2000 to 2019
$37.0M
Neuroimaging biomarkers for cognitive decline in elderly with amyloid pathologyR01AG053555 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · PI Michael A Yassa · 2017 to 2026
$17.0M
Scalable Bayesian Stochastic Process Models for Neural Data AnalysisR01MH115697 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · PI SHAHBABA, BABAK · 2018 to 2022
$1.7M
NIA NIH HHS P50 AG016573NIA NIH HHS R01 AG053555NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH115697
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundVarious interacting and interdependent components comprise complex interventions. These components create difficulty in assessing the true impact of interventions designed to improve patient-centered outcomes. Interrupted time series (ITS) designs borrow from case-crossover designs and serve as quasi-experimental methodology able to retrospectively assess the impact of an intervention while accounting for temporal correlation. While ITS designs are aptly situated for studying the impacts of large-scale public health policies, existing ITS software implement rigid ITS methodology that often assume the pre- and post-intervention phases are fully differentiated (by a known change-point or set of time points) and do not allow for changes in both the mean functions and correlation structure.

resultsThis article describes the Robust Interrupted Time Series (RITS) toolbox, a stand-alone user-friendly application researchers can use to implement flexible ITS models that estimate the lagged effect of an intervention on an outcome, level and trend changes, and post-intervention changes in the correlation structure, for single and multiple ITS. The RITS toolbox incorporates a formal test for the existence of a change in the outcome and estimates a change-point over a set of possible change-points defined by the researcher. In settings with multiple ITS, RITS provides a global over-all units change-point and allows for unit-specific changes in the mean functions and correlation structures.

conclusionsThe RITS toolbox is the first piece of software that allows researchers to use flexible ITS models that test for the existence of a change-point, estimate the change-point (if estimation is desired), and allow for changes in both the mean functions and correlation structures at the change point. RITS does not require any knowledge of a statistical (or otherwise) programming language, is freely available to the community, and may be downloaded and used on a local machine to ensure data protection.

Indexed as

Outcome Assessment, Health CareCross-Over StudiesHumansInterrupted Time Series AnalysisRetrospective StudiesChange-point detectionComplex interventionsInterrupted time seriesPolicy interventionsSegmented regressionToolbox

Identifiers

PMID34238221
PMCPMC8265076

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.