Outcomes Matter: Estimating Pre-Transplant Survival Rates of Kidney-Transplant Patients Using Simulation-Based Propensity Scores

33 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2011 Last revised: 31 Jul 2012

See all articles by Inbal Yahav

Inbal Yahav

Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management

Galit Shmueli

Institute of Service Science, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Date Written: July 30, 2012

Abstract

The current kidney allocation system in the United States fails to match donors and recipients well. In an effort to improve the allocation system, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) defined factors that should determine a new allocation policy, and particularly patients' potential remaining lifetime without a transplant (pre-transplant survival rates). Estimating pre-transplant survival rates is challenging because the data available on candidates and organ recipients is already "contaminated" by the current allocation policy. In particular, the selection of patients who are offered (and decide to accept) a kidney is not random. We therefore expect differences in mortality-related characteristics of organ recipients and of candidates who have not received transplant. Such differences introduce bias into survival models.

Existing approaches for tackling this selection bias either ignore the difference between candidates and recipients or assume that selection to transplant is based solely on patients' pre-transplant information, irrespective of the potential allocation outcome. We argue that in practice the allocation is dependent on the anticipated allocation outcome, which is a major factor in selection to transplant. Moreover, we show that ignoring the anticipated outcome increases model bias rather than decreases it. In this paper, we propose a novel simulator-based approach (SimBa) that adjusts for the selection bias by taking into account both pre-transplant and anticipated outcome information using simulation. We then fit survival models to kidney transplant waitlist data and compare the different adjustment methods. We find that SimBa not only fits the data best, but also captures a key aspect of the current allocation policy, namely, that the probability of kidney allocation increases in the expected pre-transplant life years.

Keywords: Selection bias, Pre-transplant survival rate, Kidney allocation, Propensity scores, Survival analysis, Simulation

Suggested Citation

Yahav, Inbal and Shmueli, Galit, Outcomes Matter: Estimating Pre-Transplant Survival Rates of Kidney-Transplant Patients Using Simulation-Based Propensity Scores (July 30, 2012). Robert H. Smith School Research Paper No. RHS 06-137, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1900918 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1900918

Inbal Yahav (Contact Author)

Tel Aviv University - Coller School of Management ( email )

Tel Aviv
Israel

Galit Shmueli

Institute of Service Science, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan ( email )

Hsinchu, 30013
Taiwan

HOME PAGE: http://www.iss.nthu.edu.tw

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