Doubly robust estimation of causal effects

Am J Epidemiol. 2011 Apr 1;173(7):761-7. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwq439. Epub 2011 Mar 8.

Abstract

Doubly robust estimation combines a form of outcome regression with a model for the exposure (i.e., the propensity score) to estimate the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome. When used individually to estimate a causal effect, both outcome regression and propensity score methods are unbiased only if the statistical model is correctly specified. The doubly robust estimator combines these 2 approaches such that only 1 of the 2 models need be correctly specified to obtain an unbiased effect estimator. In this introduction to doubly robust estimators, the authors present a conceptual overview of doubly robust estimation, a simple worked example, results from a simulation study examining performance of estimated and bootstrapped standard errors, and a discussion of the potential advantages and limitations of this method. The supplementary material for this paper, which is posted on the Journal's Web site (http://aje.oupjournals.org/), includes a demonstration of the doubly robust property (Web Appendix 1) and a description of a SAS macro (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina) for doubly robust estimation, available for download at http://www.unc.edu/~mfunk/dr/.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Causality*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Confidence Intervals
  • Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic
  • Epidemiologic Methods*
  • Humans
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Models, Statistical*
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Propensity Score
  • Regression Analysis