Faculty Laine Thomas and Michael Pencina recently published a JAMA article “Overlap Weighting. A Propensity Score Method That Mimics Attributes of a Randomized Clinical Trial” with Fan Li, PhD from the Duke Department of Statistical Science.
The article considers the methodology of using overlap weighting for study in JAMA Cardiology that evaluated the association between angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), or both with testing positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in 18 472 patients who were tested in the Cleveland Clinic Health System between March 8, 2020, and April 12, 2020. Overlap weighting was used to adjust for confounding in the comparison of 2285 patients who had been treated with ACEIs/ARBs with 16 187 patients who did not receive ACEIs/ARBs. After adjustment, there was no significant association between ACEI/ARB use and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. This was published in the JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods series which provide explanations for statistical approaches used in research reported in JAMA. Click here to read the full article.
Laine Thomas and Michael Pencina also authored an editorial “Understanding Observational Treatment Comparisons in the setting of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in JAMA Cardiology with Robert O. Bonow, MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. With so many cohort studies of ACEI/ARBs & COVID-19 it can be difficult to account for all the potential confounders, this editorial provides a framework for evaluating these studies.
Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Professor of Statistical Science