Abstract
Background
Considerable attention now focuses on the use of large-scale observational healthcare data for understanding drug safety. In this context, analysts utilize a variety of statistical and epidemiological approaches such as case–control, cohort, and self-controlled methods. The operating characteristics of these methods are poorly understood.
Objective
Establish the operating characteristics of the case–control method for large scale observational analysis in drug safety.
Research Design
We empirically evaluated the case–control approach in 5 real observational healthcare databases and 6 simulated datasets. We retrospectively studied the predictive accuracy of the method when applied to a collection of 165 positive controls and 234 negative controls across 4 outcomes: acute liver injury, acute myocardial infarction, acute kidney injury, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
Results
In our experiment, the case–control method provided weak discrimination between positive and negative controls. Furthermore, the method yielded positively biased estimates and confidence intervals that had poor coverage properties.
Conclusions
For the four outcomes we examined, the case–control method may not be the method of choice for estimating potentially harmful effects of drugs.
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Acknowledgments
The Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership is funded by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) through generous contributions from the following: Abbott, Amgen Inc., AstraZeneca, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly & Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Research and Development, Lundbeck, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Pfizer Inc, Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Roche, Sanofi-aventis, Schering-Plough Corporation, and Takeda. Drs. Ryan and Schuemie are employees of Janssen Research and Development. Dr. Schuemie received a fellowship from the Office of Medical Policy, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration. Drs. Schuemie and Madigan have both received a grant previously from FNIH.
This article was published in a supplement sponsored by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). The supplement was guest edited by Stephen J.W. Evans. It was peer reviewed by Olaf H. Klungel who received a small honorarium to cover out-of-pocket expenses. S.J.W.E has received travel funding from the FNIH to travel to the OMOP symposium and received a fee from FNIH for the review of a protocol for OMOP. O.H.K has received funding for the IMI-PROTECT project from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (www.imi.europa.eu) under Grant Agreement no 115004, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies’ in kind contribution.
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The OMOP research used data from Truven Health Analytics (formerly the Health Business of Thomson Reuters), and includes MarketScan® Research Databases, represented with MarketScan Lab Supplemental (MSLR, 1.2 m persons), MarketScan Medicare Supplemental Beneficiaries (MDCR, 4.6 m persons), MarketScan Multi-State Medicaid (MDCD, 10.8 m persons), MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters (CCAE, 46.5 m persons). Data also provided by Quintiles® Practice Research Database (formerly General Electric’s Electronic Health Record, 11.2 m persons) database. GE is an electronic health record database while the other four databases contain administrative claims data.
Appendix
Appendix
The effect estimates for all test cases across the five databases using the optimal analysis choice setting (2000031). MSLR MarketScan Lab Supplemental, MDCD MarketScan Multi-state Medicaid, MDCR MarketScan Medicare Supplemental Beneficiaries, CCAE MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters, GE GE Centricity
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Madigan, D., Schuemie, M.J. & Ryan, P.B. Empirical Performance of the Case–Control Method: Lessons for Developing a Risk Identification and Analysis System. Drug Saf 36 (Suppl 1), 73–82 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-013-0105-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40264-013-0105-z