The study looked at how regression to the mean affects the results of diabetes Type II medication effectiveness using data from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO) study. This research...Show moreThe study looked at how regression to the mean affects the results of diabetes Type II medication effectiveness using data from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO) study. This research showed that RTM can happen before and after starting medication. In simulations where there was no treatment effect, the HbA1c levels before starting medication were unexpectedly lower than the true average. This suggests that choosing different times to compare in the study can really change how effective the medication seems. When applying the same methods to the real NEO study data, there were some big differences compared to the simulations. For example, the estimated average HbA1c level before starting medication in the NEO study was higher than what was found using certain statistical models. This points out some possible issues with these methods and shows how complex the NEO study data is. The findings suggest that RTM is an important factor to consider in studies about medication effectiveness. Because the NEO study data is so complex, future research might need more detailed methods to properly understand RTM and how it affects the results. Expanding the types of scenarios studied, including different criteria for when treatment starts, and looking at more patient data could help give a fuller picture of RTM and improve how we evaluate medication effectiveness in real-world studiesShow less
