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Comparing methods for evaluating COVID-19 booster effectiveness

A comparison of observational methods examined how study design and analysis choices affect estimates of COVID-19 booster effectiveness.

Different observational study designs applied to the same patient records to evaluate COVID-19 boosters. Different observational study designs applied to the same patient records to evaluate COVID-19 boosters.
Conceptual comparison of observational methods; no vaccine-effectiveness estimates are shown.

We reviewed methods used in about 80 observational studies of COVID-19 boosters and applied them to Michigan Medicine patient data. Estimates of protection against hospitalization and death were relatively stable across methods; estimates for infection were more sensitive to those choices. Our study in Science Advances provides a framework for evaluating subsequent vaccine formulations.

Publication

Meah S., Shi X., Fritsche L. G., Salvatore M., Wagner A., Martin E. T., Mukherjee B. Design and analysis heterogeneity in observational studies of COVID-19 booster effectiveness: A review and case study. Sci Adv. 2023;9(51):eadj3747. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adj3747

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