advantages of matching

Last reviewed 01/2018

These include:-

  • efficient adjustment for potentially confounding effects which don't themselves have to be formally recognised. Thus matching with sibs or people from the same area means that many possible variables which might confound - social, economic, etc - are removed at one stroke
  • relatively cheap form of sampling in that in some instances the same hospital is used for both groups. This is seen by some as a disadvantage, or an overexaggerated, misleading advantage.