Comparing the Components of Composite Endpoints for Healthcare Providers and Patients

Clinical trials often employ a composite primary endpoint to increase event rates and enhance trial efficiency. However, analytic approaches to composite endpoints typically assume that the individual components are of similar importance. In practice, a treatment often has different effects on each individual endpoint, leading to uncertainty in interpreting the results of a clinical trial employing a composite primary endpoint. Some investigators have recommended using a weighted composite endpoint to address these concerns, in which individual components are valued relative to one another. However, data to inform the weighting of individual endpoints, using opinions from both medical staff and patients, remains controversial. Furthermore, prior efforts to weigh composite endpoints have assumed that patients, physicians, and clinical trialists would assign similar values to individual e