Heterogeneous treatment effects in social policy studies: An assessment of contemporary articles in the health and social sciences
Authors
Discussion
Loading...
Member takes
Implication
Methodological review finds limited reporting of heterogeneous treatment effects across contemporary health policy literature, suggesting missed opportunities to address health inequities.
Key Points
- Determine the reporting frequency, subgroup classifications, pre-specification rates, and statistical methods used to assess heterogeneous treatment effects in health and social policy research.
- Evaluated a sample of 55 articles published in 2019 investigating the health effects of social policies.
- Assessed reporting frequency of heterogeneous treatment effects (HTEs), specific subgroup factors, a priori specification rates, and analytical methodologies used.
- A total of 24 studies (44%) evaluated HTEs across demographic factors including age, gender, education, race/ethnicity, and geography.
- Among studies evaluating HTEs, 63% specified the analysis a priori, 71% utilized descriptive methods such as stratification, 21% used statistical interaction tests in regressions, and 0% implemented data-driven algorithms.
Cite This Study
Cintron et al. (2022) studied this question.