| | NRCCS - Estimation from nonrandomized treatment comparisons using subclassification on propensity scores |
 | | Standard methods of analysis using routine statistical software (e.g., linear or logistic regressions), however, can be quite deceptive for these objectives because they provide no warnings about their propriety. |
 | | The basic idea of propensity score methods is to replace the collection of confounding covariates in the observational study with one function of these covariates, called the propensity score (i.e., the propensity to receive treatment 1 rather than treatment 2), and then to use this score just as if it were the only confounding covariate. |
 | | One critical advantage of propensity score methods is that they can warn the investigator that, because of inadequately overlapping covariate distributions, a particular data base cannot address the causal question at hand without either (a) relying on untrustworthy model-dependent extrapolations, or (b) restricting attention to the type of subject adequately represented in both treatment groups. |
| www.symposion.com /nrccs/rubin.htm (5398 words) |