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Feasibility of reusing time-matched controls in an overlapping cohort

Delcoigne, Bénédicte ; Hagenbuch, Niels ; Schelin, Maria EC LU ; Salim, Agus ; Lindström, Linda S ; Bergh, Jonas ; Czene, Kamila and Reilly, Marie (2018) In Statistical Methods in Medical Research 27(6). p.1818-1829
Abstract

The methods developed for secondary analysis of nested case-control data have been illustrated only in simplified settings in a common cohort and have not found their way into biostatistical practice. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of reusing prior nested case-control data in a realistic setting where a new outcome is available in an overlapping cohort where no new controls were gathered and where all data have been anonymised. Using basic information about the background cohort and sampling criteria, the new cases and prior data are "aligned" to identify the common underlying study base. With this study base, a Kaplan-Meier table of the prior outcome extracts the risk sets required to calculate the weights to assign to the... (More)

The methods developed for secondary analysis of nested case-control data have been illustrated only in simplified settings in a common cohort and have not found their way into biostatistical practice. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of reusing prior nested case-control data in a realistic setting where a new outcome is available in an overlapping cohort where no new controls were gathered and where all data have been anonymised. Using basic information about the background cohort and sampling criteria, the new cases and prior data are "aligned" to identify the common underlying study base. With this study base, a Kaplan-Meier table of the prior outcome extracts the risk sets required to calculate the weights to assign to the controls to remove the sampling bias. A weighted Cox regression, implemented in standard statistical software, provides unbiased hazard ratios. Using the method to compare cases of contralateral breast cancer to available controls from a prior study of metastases, we identified a multifocal tumor as a risk factor that has not been reported previously. We examine the sensitivity of the method to an imperfect weighting scheme and discuss its merits and pitfalls to provide guidance for its use in medical research studies.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Journal Article
in
Statistical Methods in Medical Research
volume
27
issue
6
pages
12 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • pmid:27659169
  • scopus:85047122172
ISSN
0962-2802
DOI
10.1177/0962280216669744
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
7b7cbbf1-3d53-4cfa-8f40-01c0226f58bf
date added to LUP
2017-10-16 14:09:25
date last changed
2024-01-29 04:29:04
@article{7b7cbbf1-3d53-4cfa-8f40-01c0226f58bf,
  abstract     = {{<p>The methods developed for secondary analysis of nested case-control data have been illustrated only in simplified settings in a common cohort and have not found their way into biostatistical practice. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of reusing prior nested case-control data in a realistic setting where a new outcome is available in an overlapping cohort where no new controls were gathered and where all data have been anonymised. Using basic information about the background cohort and sampling criteria, the new cases and prior data are "aligned" to identify the common underlying study base. With this study base, a Kaplan-Meier table of the prior outcome extracts the risk sets required to calculate the weights to assign to the controls to remove the sampling bias. A weighted Cox regression, implemented in standard statistical software, provides unbiased hazard ratios. Using the method to compare cases of contralateral breast cancer to available controls from a prior study of metastases, we identified a multifocal tumor as a risk factor that has not been reported previously. We examine the sensitivity of the method to an imperfect weighting scheme and discuss its merits and pitfalls to provide guidance for its use in medical research studies.</p>}},
  author       = {{Delcoigne, Bénédicte and Hagenbuch, Niels and Schelin, Maria EC and Salim, Agus and Lindström, Linda S and Bergh, Jonas and Czene, Kamila and Reilly, Marie}},
  issn         = {{0962-2802}},
  keywords     = {{Journal Article}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{1818--1829}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Statistical Methods in Medical Research}},
  title        = {{Feasibility of reusing time-matched controls in an overlapping cohort}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0962280216669744}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0962280216669744}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}