Lectures and seminars ARC seminar with Arvid Sjölander: "E-values too optimistic or too pessimistic? Both and neither!"

13-06-2023 11:00 am Add to iCal
Campus Solna Large conference room, floor 10, Widerström building, Tomtebodavägen 18a, and online seminar via Zoom (https://ki-se.zoom.us/j/6019910648)

We are happy to welcome Arvid Sjölander, Principal Researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, to our next ARC Seminar on Tuesday 13 June 2023 at 11:00. You can also join the seminar via Zoom.

"E-values too optimistic or too pessimistic? Both and neither!"

Presenter

Arvid Sjölander, Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Abstract

The E-value is a popular tool to assess the sensitivity to unmeasured confounding; the higher the E-value, the stronger the unmeasured confounding must be to “explain away” an observed association. However, despite its popularity, the E-value has also been heavily debated and criticized. Ioannidis et al (2019) argued that a high E-value may give an unwarrented optimistic impression, since the accumulated effect of many unmeasured confounders may be large and “trump” even a high E-value, even though the effect of each separate cofounder is small. In contrast, Greenland (2020) argued that a small E-value may give an unnecessarily pessimistic impression, since bias by unmeasured confounders may be weakened considerably due to their associations with measured confounders. These criticisms may appear contradictory, and leave the reader wondering whether E-values should be interpreted as being too optimistic or too pessimistic. In this presentation we will attempt to reconcile these criticisms, and use a real data example to argue that both interpretations are valid. The presentation will be largely non-technical, and focus on fundamental conceptual issues.

Join the seminar via Zoom

Join via Zoom link (permanent link)

Contact

Ingrid Ekström Assistant Professor