"Propensity score"

BACKGROUND: Statins have been shown to have a protective effect for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the general population. This study sought to assess the association between statins and the risk for cancer-associated deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS: Patients with newly diagnosed cancer were followed for up to one year in a healthcare claims database (2010-2013). Three treatment groups included statin users, non-statin cholesterol lowering medication users, and an untreated group with pre-existing indications for statin therapy (hyperlipidemia, diabetes, or heart disease)...

INTRODUCTION: Seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) is recommended for people with diabetes, but its effectiveness has not been demonstrated. All of the available studies are observational and marred with the healthy vaccine bias, that is, bias resulting from the generally better health behaviours practised by people who choose to be vaccinated against influenza, compared with those who do not. This protocol is intended to study the effectiveness of SIV in people with treated diabetes and simultaneously to control for bias...

BACKGROUND: Children with sickle cell anemia (SCA) have an 11% risk of stroke by the age of 18. Chronic transfusion applied in patients detected to be at risk by transcranial Doppler allows a significant reduction of stroke risk. However, chronic transfusion exposes to several adverse events, including alloimmunization and iron overload, and is not curative. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation allows termination of the transfusion program, but its benefit has not been demonstrated...

Aims: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a significant cardiovascular complication following non-cardiac surgery. We sought to evaluate national trends in perioperative AMI, its management, and outcomes. Methods and results: Patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery from 2005 to 2013 were identified using the United States National Inpatient Sample. Perioperative AMI was evaluated over time. Propensity score matching was used to compile a cohort of AMI patients managed invasively (defined as cardiac catheterization or coronary revascularization) vs...

BACKGROUND: Panniculectomy (PAN) is often performed during abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) to decrease wound healing complications and hernia recurrence rates. However, studies of AWR with concurrent panniculectomy (AWR+PAN) have reported contradictory results. We hypothesized that patients undergoing AWR+PAN experience more wound healing complications but similar rates of hernia recurrence compared to AWR alone. METHODS: In this retrospective study of 548 consecutive patients, 305 (52...

BACKGROUND: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was designed to help low-income people purchase nutritious foods in the US. In recent years, there has been a consistent call for banning purchases of sugar drinks in SNAP. AIM: The aim of this study was to examine the association between SNAP participation and the frequency of sugar-sweetened soft drink (SSD) consumption among low-income adults in the US. METHOD: Data came from the 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey...

BACKGROUND: Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) is one of the most common morbidities of pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). The aim of this study was to clarify whether the incidence of DGE can be reduced by side-to-side gastric greater curvature-to-jejunal anastomosis in subtotal stomach-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (SSPPD). METHODS: The clinical data of 253 patients who had undergone PD were examined. Of a total of 188 patients who had undergone SSPPD, a gastrojejunostomy (GJ) was performed with end-to-side anastomosis in 87 patients (SSPPD-ETS group), and a GJ was performed with a greater curvature side-to-jejunal side anastomosis in 101 patients (SSPPD-STS group)...

PURPOSE: Sublobar resection has been increasingly adopted in elderly patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the equivalency of sublobar resection versus lobectomy among young patients with stage IA NSCLC is unknown. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry, we identified patients aged ≤35 years who were diagnosed between 2004 and 2013 with pathological stage IA NSCLC and treated with sublobar resection or lobectomy...

Background: The present study aimed to explore whether gastric cancer patients with peritoneal seeding after receiving palliative chemotherapy could benefit from gastrectomy and to identify patients with peritoneal seeding who should be selected to receive gastrectomy. Methods: A total of 201 gastric cancer patients were diagnosed with peritoneal seeding and received palliative chemotherapy. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance the selection bias. Results: After PSM, compared with non-gastrectomy group, gastrectomy group had a longer median overall survival (OS) (23...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of baseline post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and each symptoms cluster on the risk of developing opioid use disorder (OUD) in those exposed to opioid painkillers and to assess the effect of comorbid PTSD and OUD on functioning, OUD severity, and treatment seeking compared with individuals with OUD only. METHODS: We obtained data from 4025 individuals exposed to opioid painkillers from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III...

OBJECTIVE: Spousal clustering of diabetes merits attention. Whether old-age vulnerability or a shared family environment determines the concordance of diabetes is also uncertain. This study investigated the spousal concordance of diabetes and compared the risk of diabetes concordance between couples and noncouples by using nationally representative data. METHODS: A total of 22,572 individuals identified from the 2002-2013 National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan constituted 5,643 couples and 5,643 noncouples through 1:1 dual propensity score matching (PSM)...

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of four pretrial jail release mechanisms (i.e., bond types) commonly used during the pretrial phase of the criminal justice process in terms of their ability to discriminate between defendants failing to appear in court (i.e., bond forfeiture). These include attorney bonds, cash bonds, commercial bail bonds, and release via a pretrial services agency. METHODS: A multi-treatment propensity score matching protocol was employed to assess between-release-mechanism differences in the conditional probability of failure to appear/bond forfeiture...

Estimating the causal effect of an exposure (versus some control) on an outcome using observational data often requires addressing the fact that exposed and control groups differ on pre-exposure characteristics that may be related to the outcome (confounders). Propensity score methods have long been used as a tool for adjusting for observed confounders in order to produce more valid causal effect estimates under the strong ignorability assumption. In this article, we compare two promising propensity score estimation methods (for time invariant binary exposures) when assessing the average treatment effect on the treated: the generalized boosted models and covariate-balancing propensity scores, with the main objective to provide analysts with some rules-of-thumb when choosing between these two methods...

Purpose Small observational studies have shown a survival advantage to undergoing cancer-directed surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM); however, it is unclear if these results are generalizable. Our purpose was to evaluate survival after treatment of MPM with cancer-directed surgery and to explore the effect surgery interaction with chemotherapy or radiation therapy on survival by using the National Cancer Database. Patients and Methods Patients with microscopically proven MPM were identified within the National Cancer Database (2004 to 2014)...

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that primary tumor ablation can improve survival for some cancer patients with distant metastases. This may be particularly applicable to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) because of its tropism for locoregional progression. METHODS: This study included patients with metastatic HNSCC undergoing systemic therapy identified in the National Cancer Data Base. High-intensity local treatment was defined as radiation doses ≥ 60 Gy or oncologic resection of the primary tumor...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of oral care in prevention of postoperative pneumonia associated with esophageal cancer surgery.Postoperative pneumonia is a severe adverse event associated with esophageal cancer surgery. It is thought to be caused by aspiration of oropharyngeal fluid containing pathogens. However, the relationship between oral health status and postoperative pneumonia has not been well investigated.This study included 539 patients with esophageal cancer undergoing surgery at 1 of 7 university hospitals...

BACKGROUND: Whether patients on testosterone replacement therapy undergoing noncardiac surgery have an increased risk of postoperative in-hospital mortality and cardiovascular events remains unknown. We therefore sought to identify the impact of testosterone replacement on the incidence of a composite of postoperative in-hospital mortality and cardiovascular events in men undergoing noncardiac surgery. METHODS: Data from male American Society of Anesthesiologists I through IV patients 40 yr or older who underwent noncardiac surgery between May 2005 and December 2015 at the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio) main campus were included...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To summarize the available literature regarding radiotherapy as a metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) in the treatment of oligometastatic prostate cancer (PCa). RECENT FINDINGS: Three different clinical scenarios of oligometastatic PCa exist in which MDT can be applied: de novo oligometastatic PCa, oligorecurrent PCa, and oligoprogressive PCa. A cut off of three to five metastatic lesions is most often used in these settings. Data from retrospective studies, treating over 1000 patients in total, have been reported...

Objective-Not all patients with type 2 diabetes achieve the recommended glycated hemoglobin A1c (A1C) levels after adequate titration of basal insulin (BI). Current intensification approaches include addition of rapid-acting insulin (RAI) or a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), but it is not clear which strategy results in better long-term outcomes. Methods-This retrospective analysis of health insurance claims data in the US MarketScan database compared glycemic control and healthcare resource utilization and costs 12 months after adding GLP-1 RA to BI vs adding RAI or increasing BI doses...

PURPOSE: To compare oncological outcomes of total mesorectal excision (TME) and local excision (LE) in patients with "early" clinical T3 rectal cancer who received preoperative chemoradiotherapy (PCRT). METHODS AND MATERIALS: "Early" clinical T3 rectal cancer was radiologically defined as tumors with extramural extension of <5 mm without mesorectal fascia involvement and lateral lymph node metastasis. Patients with "early" clinical T3 rectal cancer who received PCRT followed by TME or LE between January 2007 and December 2013 were retrospectively analyzed...