Conflating marginal and conditional treatment effects: Comments on 'Assessing the performance of population adjustment methods for anchored indirect comparisons: A simulation study'

Abstract

In this commentary, we highlight the importance of: (1) carefully considering and clarifying whether a marginal or conditional treatment effect is of interest in a population-adjusted indirect treatment comparison; and (2) developing distinct methodologies for estimating the different measures of effect. The appropriateness of each methodology depends on the preferred target of inference.

6 pages, submitted to Statistics in Medicine. Response to `Assessing the performance of population adjustment methods for anchored indirect comparisons: A simulation study' by Phillippo, Dias, Ades and Welton, published in Statistics in Medicine (2020). Updated after Ph.D. proposal defense/transfer viva comments