Using Cardinality Matching to Design Balanced and Representative Samples for Observational Studies

Cardinality matching is a computational method for finding the largest possible number of matched pairs of exposed and unexposed individuals from an observational dataset, with specified patterns of baseline characteristics that represent a target population for analysis. This article explains the process of cardinality matching and how it simultaneously addresses the concerns of balance, sample size, and representativeness of matched samples in observational studies.