Inconsistency between overall and subgroup analyses
Hongyue Wang, Bokai Wang, Xin Tu, Changyong Feng
Abstract
Suppose we have a sample of subjects in two treatment groups. To study the difference of the treatment effects, we can analyse the data using all subjects (overall analysis). We may also divide the subjects into several subgroups based on some covariates of interest (eg, gender), and study the treatment effects within each subgroup. The results of these two analyses may be different or even in opposite directions. In this paper, we give a general sufficient condition of consistency between the overall and subgroup analyses.
Topics & Concepts
Subgroup analysisConsistency (knowledge bases)CovariateTreatment effectMedicineMathematicsStatisticsInternal medicineMeta-analysisTraditional medicineGeometryStatistical Methods and InferenceAdvanced Causal Inference TechniquesStatistical Methods in Clinical Trials