STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Patients’ characteristics were reported using means and medians for continuous variables and proportions for categorical variables. A p- value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Propensity score matching was performed using 1:1 nearest neighbour match with a caliber of 0.06 and no replacement for factors. Propensity score distribution was presented in Figure 1 and the absolute bias difference of 20% of covariates between groups indicated a satisfactory match. Shapiro-Wilk normality test was performed, and non-normally distributed continuous variables were presented as median (Q1-Q3). Continuous variables were compared using Wilcoxon test for the unmatched groups and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test for the matched groups. Categorical variables were presented as numbers and percentages and compared with the Chi-square or Fisher exact test for the unmatched groups and Mcnemar or Friedman tests for the matched groups. We reported the P-value and the standardized mean difference for the baseline data pre and post-match. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata 16.1 (Stata Corp- College Station- TX- USA).