Quantifying and Adjusting for Confounding From Health-Seeking Behavior and Health Care Access in Observational Research.

COVID-19 confounding from health-seeking behavior and health care access influenza vaccine effectiveness vaccines

Journal

Open forum infectious diseases
ISSN: 2328-8957
Titre abrégé: Open Forum Infect Dis
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101637045

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Oct 2024
Historique:
received: 10 07 2024
medline: 30 10 2024
pubmed: 30 10 2024
entrez: 30 10 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Health-seeking behavior and health care access (HSB/HCA) are recognized confounders in many observational studies but are not directly measurable in electronic health records. We used proxy markers of HSB/HCA to quantify and adjust for confounding in observational studies of influenza and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE). This cohort study used primary care data prelinked to secondary care and death data in England. We included individuals aged ≥66 years on 1 September 2019 and assessed influenza VE in the 2019-2020 season and early COVID-19 VE (December 2020-March 2021). VE was estimated with sequential adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and 14 markers of HSB/HCA. Influenza vaccination in the 2019-2020 season was also considered a negative control exposure against COVID-19 before COVID-19 vaccine rollout. We included 1 991 284, 1 796 667, and 1 946 943 individuals in the influenza, COVID-19, and negative control exposure populations, respectively. Markers of HSB/HCA were positively correlated with influenza and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. For influenza, adjusting for HSB/HCA markers in addition to demographics and comorbidities increased VE against influenza-like illness from -1.5% (95% CI, -3.2% to .1%) to 7.1% (95% CI, 5.4%-8.7%) with a less apparent trend for more severe outcomes. For COVID-19, adjusting for HSB/HCA markers did not change VE estimates against infection or severe disease (eg, 2 doses of BNT162b2 against infection: 82.8% [95% CI, 78.4%-86.3%] to 83.1% [95% CI, 78.7%-86.5%]). Adjusting for HSB/HCA markers removed bias in the negative control exposure analysis (-7.5% [95% CI, -10.6% to -4.5%] vs -2.1% [95% CI, -6.0% to 1.7%] before vs after adjusting for HSB/HCA markers). Markers of HSB/HCA can be used to quantify and account for confounding in observational vaccine studies.

Sections du résumé

Background UNASSIGNED
Health-seeking behavior and health care access (HSB/HCA) are recognized confounders in many observational studies but are not directly measurable in electronic health records. We used proxy markers of HSB/HCA to quantify and adjust for confounding in observational studies of influenza and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE).
Methods UNASSIGNED
This cohort study used primary care data prelinked to secondary care and death data in England. We included individuals aged ≥66 years on 1 September 2019 and assessed influenza VE in the 2019-2020 season and early COVID-19 VE (December 2020-March 2021). VE was estimated with sequential adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and 14 markers of HSB/HCA. Influenza vaccination in the 2019-2020 season was also considered a negative control exposure against COVID-19 before COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Results UNASSIGNED
We included 1 991 284, 1 796 667, and 1 946 943 individuals in the influenza, COVID-19, and negative control exposure populations, respectively. Markers of HSB/HCA were positively correlated with influenza and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. For influenza, adjusting for HSB/HCA markers in addition to demographics and comorbidities increased VE against influenza-like illness from -1.5% (95% CI, -3.2% to .1%) to 7.1% (95% CI, 5.4%-8.7%) with a less apparent trend for more severe outcomes. For COVID-19, adjusting for HSB/HCA markers did not change VE estimates against infection or severe disease (eg, 2 doses of BNT162b2 against infection: 82.8% [95% CI, 78.4%-86.3%] to 83.1% [95% CI, 78.7%-86.5%]). Adjusting for HSB/HCA markers removed bias in the negative control exposure analysis (-7.5% [95% CI, -10.6% to -4.5%] vs -2.1% [95% CI, -6.0% to 1.7%] before vs after adjusting for HSB/HCA markers).
Conclusions UNASSIGNED
Markers of HSB/HCA can be used to quantify and account for confounding in observational vaccine studies.

Identifiants

pubmed: 39474443
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae598
pii: ofae598
pmc: PMC11518854
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

ofae598

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Potential conflict of interests: S. G. is a part-time salaried employee of Evidera, which is a business unit of Pharmaceutical Product Development, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. All other authors report no potential conflicts.

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Auteurs

Sophie Graham (S)

Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, London, UK.

Jemma L Walker (JL)

Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, London, UK.
Statistics Unit, UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.

Nick Andrews (N)

Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, London, UK.
Statistics Unit, UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.

William J Hulme (WJ)

The Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Dorothea Nitsch (D)

Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
UK Renal Registry, Bristol, UK.
Renal Unit, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Hertfordshire, UK.

Edward P K Parker (EPK)

Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, London, UK.

Helen I McDonald (HI)

Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation, National Institute for Health and Care Research, London, UK.
Statistics Unit, UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.
Faculty of Science, University of Bath, Bath, UK.

Classifications MeSH