Academic Journal

The Target Study: A Conceptual Model and Framework for Measuring Disparity

Bibliographic Details
Title: The Target Study: A Conceptual Model and Framework for Measuring Disparity
Authors: Jackson, John W., Hsu, Yea-Jen, Greer, Raquel C., Boonyasai, Romsai T., Howe, Chanelle J.
Contributors: National Institutes of Health
Source: Sociological Methods & Research ; ISSN 0049-1241 1552-8294
Publisher Information: SAGE Publications
Publication Year: 2025
Description: We present a conceptual model to measure disparity—the target study—where social groups may be similarly situated (i.e., balanced) on allowable covariates. Our model, based on a sampling design, does not intervene to assign social group membership or alter allowable covariates. To address nonrandom sample selection, we extend our model to generalize or transport disparity or to assess disparity after an intervention on eligibility-related variables that eliminates forms of collider-stratification. To avoid bias from differential timing of enrollment, we aggregate time-specific study results by balancing calendar time of enrollment across social groups. To provide a framework for emulating our model, we discuss study designs, data structures, and G-computation and weighting estimators. We compare our sampling-based model to prominent decomposition-based models used in healthcare and algorithmic fairness. We provide R code for all estimators and apply our methods to measure health system disparities in hypertension control using electronic medical records.
Document Type: article in journal/newspaper
Language: English
DOI: 10.1177/00491241251314037
Availability: https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241251314037
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00491241251314037
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/00491241251314037
Rights: https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license
Accession Number: edsbas.7A509D83
Database: BASE
Description
DOI:10.1177/00491241251314037