Plain language summary (192/200):
Researchers have recently started using a new method, called “clone-censor-weighting” (CCW), to compare the effect of starting drug or medical treatments during specific time windows (e.g., between 0 and 30 days or between 30 to 90 days after a heart attack). Using CCW to make these comparisons can be very complicated, however, both in terms of actual implementation and in terms of the actual question researchers are answering. We walk readers through a fairly simple application of the CCW method to compare the effect of starting aspirin or clopidogrel within 30 days, within 90 days, or between 30 and 90 days of heart attack within fake data originally created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. We also provide statistical code for readers to duplicate our analyses. In addition to removing bias from measured variables that impacted whether people were removed from our study, we also created figures to represent when people started treatment within each of the hypothetical treatment regimens being studied. While using CCW can be challenging and it answers a deceptively complicated research question, it is very useful for comparing different windows in which people might start treatment.