Purpose of Review: To summarize recent literature on selection bias in disparities research addressing either descriptive or causal questions, with examples from dementia research.
Recent Findings: Defining a clear estimand, including the target population, is essential to assess whether generalizability bias or collider-stratification bias is a threat to inferences.
I presented this talk in the Symposia: “Specifying and emulating target trials to estimate causal effects of complex exposures”, at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference 2023, held in Portland, OR, USA.
Studying causal exposure effects on dementia is challenging when death is a competing event. Researchers often interpret death as a potential source of bias, though bias cannot be defined or assessed if the causal question is not explicitly specified.
All else being equal, if we had 1 causal effect we wished to estimate, we would conduct a randomized trial with a protocol that mapped onto that causal question, or we would attempt to emulate that target trial with observational data.
I presented this work in the Oral abstract session of Novel questions and innovative methods in aging epidemiology at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference, 2021.
The work from this presentation is under review for publication.
I presented this work in the session of Early identification and prevention of brain disorders at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Conference, 2020.
The work from this presentation has been published at the European Journal of Epidemiology, more information here.
Objective: Observational data can be used to attempt to emulate a target trial of statin use and estimate analogues of intention-to-treat and per protocol effects on dementia risk.
Methods: Using data from a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands, we conceptualized a sequence of “trials” in which eligible individuals ages 55–80 years were classified as statin initiators or noninitiators for every consecutive month between 1993 and 2007 and were followed until diagnosis of dementia, death, loss to follow-up, or the end of follow-up.
I presented this work in the session of SCR4-29 - Public Health: Innovative Methods In ADRD Research at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on July, 2020. I co-chaired this virtual session.
I presented this work in the Selection Session at MELODEM’s first virtual Annual Meeting on July 2020.
The manuscript of this work is in process.