The prognostic analogue of the propensity score

Abstract

The propensity score collapses the covariates of an observational study into a single measure summarizing their joint association with treatment conditions; prognostic scores summarize covariates' association with potential responses. As with propensity scores, stratification on prognostic scores brings to uncontrolled studies a concrete and desirable form of balance, a balance that is more familiar as an objective of experimental control. Like propensity scores, prognostic scores can reduce the dimension of the covariate, yet causal inferences conditional on them are as valid as are inferences conditional only on the unreduced covariate. As a method of adjustment unto itself, prognostic scoring has limitations not shared with propensity scoring, but it holds promise as a complement to the propensity score, particularly in certain designs for which unassisted propensity adjustment is difficult or infeasible. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.