Observational Studies: Pitfalls and Solutions

This lecture discusses the difference between experimental and observational studies, highlighting the pitfalls of the latter. It covers the challenges of drawing valid conclusions from 'found data' and motivates reading key books. The instructor uses Dr. Bob's smoking cure as a case study to explain the importance of randomization in experiments and the limitations of observational studies. The lecture introduces the concept of propensity scores to address the issue of unobserved covariates and emphasizes the need for sensitivity analysis to ensure the validity of conclusions. Various examples, including the smoking and lung cancer case, illustrate the application of these methods in real-world scenarios.