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).