Warning: file_get_contents(https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=26841057
&cmd=llinks): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 215
Warning: imagejpeg(C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\phplern\26841057
.jpg): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 117 Epidemiology
2016 ; 27
(3
): 368-77
Nephropedia Template TP
gab.com Text
Twit Text FOAVip
Twit Text #
English Wikipedia
Sensitivity Analysis Without Assumptions
#MMPMID26841057
Ding P
; VanderWeele TJ
Epidemiology
2016[May]; 27
(3
): 368-77
PMID26841057
show ga
Unmeasured confounding may undermine the validity of causal inference with
observational studies. Sensitivity analysis provides an attractive way to
partially circumvent this issue by assessing the potential influence of
unmeasured confounding on causal conclusions. However, previous sensitivity
analysis approaches often make strong and untestable assumptions such as having
an unmeasured confounder that is binary, or having no interaction between the
effects of the exposure and the confounder on the outcome, or having only one
unmeasured confounder. Without imposing any assumptions on the unmeasured
confounder or confounders, we derive a bounding factor and a sharp inequality
such that the sensitivity analysis parameters must satisfy the inequality if an
unmeasured confounder is to explain away the observed effect estimate or reduce
it to a particular level. Our approach is easy to implement and involves only two
sensitivity parameters. Surprisingly, our bounding factor, which makes no
simplifying assumptions, is no more conservative than a number of previous
sensitivity analysis techniques that do make assumptions. Our new bounding factor
implies not only the traditional Cornfield conditions that both the relative risk
of the exposure on the confounder and that of the confounder on the outcome must
satisfy but also a high threshold that the maximum of these relative risks must
satisfy. Furthermore, this new bounding factor can be viewed as a measure of the
strength of confounding between the exposure and the outcome induced by a
confounder.