Every observational study faces unmeasured confounding. Sensitivity analysis asks: how large would the bias need to be to change the sign or significance of the estimate?
Robustness means trying alternative specifications — different covariate sets, estimators, sample restrictions — and checking whether conclusions hold.
What to report
- Primary estimate with confidence interval.
- Balance or overlap diagnostics.
- At least one alternative estimator.
- Refutation or placebo results when available.
- Plain-language limits for decision makers.