Propensity scores and drug use in older adults
Official title: Propensity scores and preventive drug use in the elderly
Funded at Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill · NIH-11373009 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This grant aims to improve how we study how medicines and vaccines work for people aged 65 and up by refining methods to account for other health factors in real-world data.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chapel Hill, United States) |
| Project start | September 15, 2017 |
| Project end | May 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $602,178 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG056479-09 |
| Project ID | NIH-11373009 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Older adults (typically 65+), especially those with multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy, whose care could be informed by improved real-world evidence.
✕Less likely to help
Patients not receiving medications or those not represented in real-world data may have limited direct benefit.
What this research studies
Researchers will build and test methods that reduce bias in studies of medications, surgeries, and vaccines used by older adults with multiple health conditions. The project focuses on real-world evidence and nonexperimental data to better understand benefits and harms of treatments outside randomized trials. By addressing confounding factors like frailty, it seeks to produce more reliable estimates that can guide clinical decisions. The work continues a line of methodological development that has already advanced propensity score techniques since 2005.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, findings could lead to more accurate real-world evidence about what helps or harms older patients, guiding safer treatment choices.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work has shown that refined propensity score methods improve validity in nonexperimental studies of older adults.
Where this research is happening
-
Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sturmer, Til — Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Study coordinator: Sturmer, Til
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.