Open AccessEvaluating Short-Term Drug Effects Using a Physician-Specific Prescribing Preference as an Instrumental Variable
Author(s) -
M. Alan Brookhart,
Philip S. Wang,
Daniel H. Solomon,
Sebastian Schneeweiß
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.901
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1531-5487
pISSN - 1044-3983
DOI - 10.1097/01.ede.0000193606.58671.c5
Subject(s) - instrumental variable , confounding , pharmacoepidemiology , medicine , observational study , medical prescription , confidence interval , randomized controlled trial , statistics , pharmacology , mathematics
Postmarketing observational studies of the safety and effectiveness of prescription medications are critically important but fraught with methodological problems. The data sources available for such research often lack information on indications and other important confounders for the drug exposure under study. Instrumental variable methods have been proposed as a potential approach to control confounding by indication in nonexperimental studies of treatment effects; however, good instruments are hard to find.