About the Authors

Su Golder

su.golder@york.ac.uk

Affiliation Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, United Kingdom

Yoon K. Loke

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Martin Bland

Affiliation Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The Academic Editor, Jan P. Vandenbroucke, has disclosed that he has worked with authors SG and YKL on another project unrelated to the study reported in this paper. He also discloses an intellectual competing interest in that he has previously published the theoretical viewpoint that estimates of harms outcomes in observational studies may be as valid as results of randomized trials, and may be more generalizable. The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SG. Performed the study: SG YL. Analyzed the data: SG YL MB. Wrote the paper: SG YL MB. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: SG YL MB. Agree with the manuscript's results and conclusions: SG YL MB. Wrote the first draft of the paper: SG.