2007/08/06 by Jason Roy, Joseph W. Hogan, Bess H. Marcus · 2 citations
Mathematics · #Advanced Causal Inference Techniques #Statistical Methods and Bayesian Inference #Statistical Methods and Inference
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/biostatistics/kxm027
openalex publication_date 2007/08/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In behavioral medicine trials, such as smoking cessation trials, 2 or more active treatments are often compared. Noncompliance by some subjects with their assigned treatment poses a challenge to the data analyst. The principal stratification framework permits inference about causal effects among subpopulations characterized by potential compliance. However, in the absence of prior information, there are 2 significant limitations: (1) the causal effects cannot be point identified for some strata and (2) individuals in the subpopulations (strata) cannot be identified. We propose to use additional information-compliance-predictive covariates-to help identify the causal effects and to help describe characteristics of the subpopulations. The probability of membership in each principal stratum is modeled as a function of these covariates. The model is constructed using marginal compliance models (which are identified) and a sensitivity parameter that captures the association between the 2 marginal distributions. We illustrate our methods in both a simulation study and an analysis of data from a smoking cessation trial.