Quantifying and reducing inequity in average treatment effect estimation

Abstract

Abstract Background Across studies of average treatment effects, some population subgroups consistently have lower representation than others which can lead to discrepancies in how well results generalize. Methods We develop a framework for quantifying inequity due to systemic disparities in sample representation and a method for mitigation during data analysis. Assuming subgroup treatment effects are exchangeable, an unbiased sample average treatment effect estimator will have lower mean-squared error, on average across studies, for subgroups with less representation when treatment effects vary. We present a method for estimating average treatment effects in representation-adjusted samples which enables subgroups to optimally leverage information from the full sample rather than only their own subgroup’s data. Two approaches for specifying representation adjustment are offered—one minimizes average mean-squared error for each subgroup separately and the other balances minimization of mean-squared error and equal representation. We conduct simulation studies to compare the performance of the proposed estimators to several subgroup-specific estimators. Results We find that the proposed estimators generally provide lower mean squared error, particularly for smaller subgroups, relative to the other estimators. As a case study, we apply this method to a subgroup analysis from a published study. Conclusions We recommend the use of the proposed estimators to mitigate the impact of disparities in representation, though structural change is ultimately needed.