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Points of significance

Propensity score matching

Nature Methods volume 21, pages 1770–1772 (2024)Cite this article

I don’t have good luck in the match points. —Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player.

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Fig. 1: Causal relationships (arrows) between three covariates (alcohol intake, stress level, caffeine intake) in an observational study that examines the causal effect of smoking on BMD.
Fig. 2: Covariate distributions of all participants in the study and of matched groups.
Fig. 3: Balance between treatment and control groups.
Fig. 4: Bone mineral density reduction between treatment and control groups, allowing for propensity score matching with replacement and weighting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Novartis Pharma GmbH, Munich, Germany

    Christoph F. Kurz

  2. Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Martin Krzywinski

  3. Department of Statistics, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Naomi Altman

Authors
  1. Christoph F. Kurz
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  2. Martin Krzywinski
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  3. Naomi Altman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Krzywinski.

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C.F.K. is employed by Novartis Pharma.

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Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. Propensity score matching. Nat Methods 21, 1770–1772 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-024-02405-4

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