INTRODUCTION We used agent-based simulation to examine the problem of time-varying confounding when estimating the effect of an adverse event on hospital length of stay. Conventional analytic methods were compared with inverse probability weighting (IPW). METHODS A cohort of hospitalized patients, at risk for experiencing an adverse event, was simulated. Synthetic individuals were assigned a ...

BACKGROUND Pairwise meta-analysis, indirect treatment comparisons and network meta-analysis for aggregate level survival data are often based on the reported hazard ratio, which relies on the proportional hazards assumption. This assumption is implausible when hazard functions intersect, and can have a huge impact on decisions based on comparisons of expected survival, such as cost-effectivenes...

We find the Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS) developed by Cherny et al. [1] a practical and simple-to-use tool for comparing the benefits of new cancer therapies. With a large number of oncology drugs being approved, this kind of rating of the expected treatment benefits is indeed relevant, and we commend the authors for making an important contribution. Cherny et al. propose tha...

Previous studies have reported strong associations between birth order, maternal age, and suicide, but these results might have been confounded by socioeconomic and other factors. To control for such factors, we compared suicide risk between siblings and studied how maternal age at child birth and birth order influenced risk in a cohort study of 1,690,306 Norwegians born in 1967-1996 who were f...

BACKGROUND Although research has demonstrated that depressive symptoms predict stroke incidence, depressive symptoms are dynamic. It is unclear whether stroke risk persists if depressive symptoms remit. METHODS AND RESULTS Health and Retirement Study participants (n=16 178, stroke free and noninstitutionalized at baseline) were interviewed biennially from 1998 to 2010. Stroke and depressive s...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the process by which owners search for lost dogs and identify factors associated with time to recovery. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SAMPLE POPULATION Owners of 187 dogs lost in Montgomery County, Ohio, between June 1 and September 30, 2005. PROCEDURES A telephone survey was conducted. RESULTS 132 of the 187 (71%) dogs were recovered; median time to recovery w...

BACKGROUND Data are limited on cancer outcomes in adolescents and young adults. METHODS Based on data from the Western Australian Data Linkage System, this study modelled survival and excess mortality in all adolescents and young adults aged 15-39 years in Western Australia who had a diagnosis of cancer in the period 1982-2004. Relative survival and excess all-cause mortality for all cancers ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE At age 45 years, blacks have a stroke mortality ≈3× greater than their white counterparts, with a declining disparity at older ages. We assess whether this black-white disparity in stroke mortality is attributable to a black-white disparity in stroke incidence versus a disparity in case fatality. METHODS We first assess if black-white differences in stroke mortality wit...

Research suggests that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to attrit from longitudinal trauma studies than non-Hispanic Whites. Yet, little is known about how the loss of minority participants influences longitudinal findings as well as internal and external validity of study findings. Thus, the present study examined the effects of race/ethnicity on attrition in a longitudinal trauma ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between use of benzodiazepines and incident dementia. DESIGN Prospective, population based study. SETTING PAQUID study, France. PARTICIPANTS 1063 men and women (mean age 78.2 years) who were free of dementia and did not start taking benzodiazepines until at least the third year of follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incident dementia, confirmed by a ne...