Correcting for selective participation in cohort studies using auxiliary register data without identification of non-participants.
Selective participation may hamper the validity of population-based cohort studies. The resulting bias can be alleviated by linking auxiliary register data to both the participants and the non-participants of the study, estimating propensity scores for participation and correcting for participation based on these. However, registry holders may not be allowed to disclose sensitive data on (invited) non-participants. Our aim is to provide guidance on how adequate bias correction can be achieved by using auxiliary register data but without disclosing information that could be linked to the subset of non-participants.