In: Biology
Describe a situation where the effect of treatment may be different as function of the time-dependent confounding factor?
Time-modified confounding occurs when the causal relation between a time-fixed or time-varying confounder and the treatment or outcome changes over time.Longitudinal studies in which exposures, confounders, and outcomes are measured repeatedly over time have the potential to allow causal inferences about the effects of exposure on outcome.The effectiveness of treatment for people with substance use disorders is usually examined using longitudinal cohorts. In these studies, treatment is often considered as a time-varying exposure.For example, consider a study to estimate the effect of methotrexate on mortality among rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. Methotrexate is a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) commonly prescribed to people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. The health assessment questionnaire disability index, a measure of a patient’s level of functional ability, predicts whether a person suffering from rheumatoid arthritis will be treated with methotrexate and also predicts survival of that person. Therefore, disability index is a time-dependent confounder.