PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ibrahim Almaghlouth AU - Eleanor Pullenayegum AU - Dafna D Gladman AU - Murray B Urowitz AU - Sindhu R Johnson TI - Propensity Score Methods in Rare Disease. A Demonstration Using Observational Data in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus AID - 10.3899/jrheum.200254 DP - 2020 Jul 01 TA - The Journal of Rheumatology PG - jrheum.200254 4099 - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2020/06/25/jrheum.200254.short 4100 - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2020/06/25/jrheum.200254.full AB - Observational studies allow researchers to understand the natural history of rheumatic conditions, risk factors for disease development, factors affecting important disease-related outcomes and estimate treatment effect from real world data. However, this design carries a risk of confounding bias. A propensity score is a balancing score that aims to minimize the difference between study groups and consequently potential confounding effects. The score can be applied in one of four methods in observational research: matching, stratification, adjustment, and inverse probability weighting. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a rare disease characterized by relatively small sample size and/or low event rates. In this article, we review propensity score methods. We demonstrate application of propensity score methods to achieve study group balance in a rare disease using an example of risk of infection in SLE patients with hypogammaglobulinemia.