Inverse probability weighting for self-selection bias correction in the investigation of social inequality in mortality.
Int J Epidemiol
; 53(4)2024 Jun 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38996447
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Empirical evaluation of inverse probability weighting (IPW) for self-selection bias correction is inaccessible without the full source population. We aimed to (i) investigate how self-selection biases frequency and association measures and (ii) assess self-selection bias correction using IPW in a cohort with register linkage.METHODS:
The source population included 17â936 individuals invited to the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank during 2009-11 (ages 49-63 years). Participants counted 7185 (40.1%). Register data were obtained for every invited person from 7 years before invitation to the end of 2020. The association between education and mortality was estimated using Cox regression models among participants, IPW participants and the source population.RESULTS:
Participants had higher socioeconomic position and fewer hospital contacts before baseline than the source population. Frequency measures of participants approached those of the source population after IPW. Compared with primary/lower secondary education, upper secondary, short tertiary, bachelor and master/doctoral were associated with reduced risk of death among participants (adjusted hazard ratio [95% CI] 0.60 [0.46; 0.77], 0.68 [0.42; 1.11], 0.37 [0.25; 0.54], 0.28 [0.18; 0.46], respectively). IPW changed the estimates marginally (0.59 [0.45; 0.77], 0.57 [0.34; 0.93], 0.34 [0.23; 0.50], 0.24 [0.15; 0.39]) but not only towards those of the source population (0.57 [0.51; 0.64], 0.43 [0.32; 0.60], 0.38 [0.32; 0.47], 0.22 [0.16; 0.29]).CONCLUSIONS:
Frequency measures of study participants may not reflect the source population in the presence of self-selection, but the impact on association measures can be limited. IPW may be useful for (self-)selection bias correction, but the returned results can still reflect residual or other biases and random errors.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Socioeconomic Factors
/
Proportional Hazards Models
/
Mortality
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
Int J Epidemiol
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article