Immortal time bias

Consider

if seriously injured patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) were offered tea and crumpets (T&C) on day 3. Subsequent analysis would likely find that T&C recipients not only have lower mortality, but fare better overall than non-recipients. T&C therapy is thus found to benefit ICU patients! Of course it is a ruse: all we have done with T&C is to select those patients destined to do well.

Just saying …

@afrakt

Austin Frakt

Austin Frakt, PhD, is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist. His day job is Associate Director of the Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center at the Boston VA Healthcare System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also a Principal Research Scientist with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Services Research.

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Austin Frakt

Austin Frakt, PhD, is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist. His day job is Associate Director of the Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center at the Boston VA Healthcare System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also a Principal Research Scientist with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Services Research.

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