Abstract

Background

Selection and selection bias are terms that lack consistent definitions and have varying meaning and usage across disciplines. There is also confusion in current definitions between underlying mechanisms that lead to selection and their consequences. Consequences of selection on study validity must be judged on a case-by-case basis depending on research question, study design and analytical decisions. The overall aim of the study was to develop a simple but general framework for classifying various types of selection processes of relevance for epidemiological research.

Methods

Several original articles from the epidemiological literature and from related areas of observational research were reviewed in search of examples of selection processes, used terminology and description of the underlying mechanisms.

Results

We classified the identified selection processes in three dimensions: i) selection level (selection at the population level vs. study-specific selection), ii) type of mechanism (selection in exposure vs. selection in population composition), iii) timing of the selection (at exposure entry, during exposure/follow-up or post-outcome).

Conclusions

Increased understanding of when, how, and why selection occur is an important step towards improved validity of epidemiological research.

Details

Title
A novel framework for classification of selection processes in epidemiological research
Author
Björk, Jonas  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Nilsson, Anton; Bonander, Carl; Strömberg, Ulf
Pages
1-10
Section
Research article
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
14712288
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2414736604
Copyright
© 2020. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.