Design and Implementation of Observational Studies Emulating a Target Trial - PubMed
a day ago
- #Target Trial Emulation
- #Observational Studies
- #Causal Inference
- Target trial emulation (TTE) is increasingly used to estimate causal effects with observational data.
- The study reviewed 237 TTE studies published from 2017 to 2023 in top clinical journals.
- Over half (54.0%) of the studies evaluated drug interventions, mainly in infectious diseases, cardiology, and oncology.
- TTE was applied in 8 recurring clinical scenarios, including RCT replication and extending evidence to underrepresented populations.
- Major methodologic gaps were identified: only 56.5% had a prespecified protocol, and 53.6% did not review existing RCTs.
- During implementation, 43.5% of studies did not report all 7 methodologic components, and only 30.8% addressed unmeasured confounding.
- A 5-step framework for target trial design was developed to improve future TTE studies.
- The study highlights common pitfalls and provides recommendations to enhance observational evidence credibility.