Abstract
Propensity score methods (e.g., matching, weighting, subclassification) provide a statistical approach for balancing dissimilar exposure groups on baseline covariates. These methods were developed in the context of data with no hierarchical structure or clustering. Yet in many applications the data have a clustered structure that is of substantive importance, such as when individuals are nested within healthcare providers or within schools. Recent work has extended propensity score methods to a multilevel setting, primarily focusing on binary exposures. In this paper, we focus on propensity score weighting for a continuous, rather than binary, exposure in a multilevel setting. Using simulations, we compare several specifications of the propensity score: a random effects model, a fixed effects model, and a single-level model. Additionally, our simulations compare the performance of marginal versus cluster-mean stabilized propensity score weights. In our results, regression specifications that accounted for the multilevel structure reduced bias, particularly when cluster-level confounders were omitted. Furthermore, cluster mean weights outperformed marginal weights.
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Acknowledgments
This work was conducted while Megan Schuler was post-doctoral fellow and Wanghuan Chu was a doctoral student at the Pennsylvania State University. This work was funded by awards P50 DA010075, P50 DA039838, and T32 DA017629 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and K01 ES025437 from the National Institutes of Health Big Data to Knowledge initiative; IGERT award DGE-1144860 from the National Science Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.
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Schuler, M.S., Chu, W. & Coffman, D. Propensity score weighting for a continuous exposure with multilevel data. Health Serv Outcomes Res Method 16, 271–292 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10742-016-0157-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10742-016-0157-5