Mediation analysis with intermediate confounding: structural equation modeling viewed through the causal inference lens.
Mediation analysis with intermediate confounding: structural equation modeling viewed through the causal inference lens.
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DOI：
10.1093/aje/kwu239
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发表时间：
2015-01-01
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Micali N
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
De Stavola BL;Daniel RM;Ploubidis GB;Micali N
调解的研究在社会科学中有着悠久的传统，在流行病学中则是相对较新的研究。第一个流派与路径分析和结构方程模型(SEM)有关，而第二个流派主要与潜在结果方法中发展的因果推理方法有关。通过给出直接和间接影响的无模型定义和明确的识别假设，后者将直观地形成于前者的概念形式化，并极大地增加了所涉及模型的灵活性。然而，由于其主要关注非参数识别，通过自然效应影响分解的因果推理方法仅限于排除中间混杂因素的设置。这样的混杂因素自然会在结构模型框架中处理(尽管存在非正式性和建模不灵活的问题)。因此，带着来自因果推理的正式定义和(参数)识别假设，重新审视具有中间混杂因素的中小企业似乎是恰当的。在这里，我们调查：1)识别假设如何影响中小企业的规范，2)是否可以放松更具限制性的SEM假设，以及3)现有的敏感性分析是否可以扩展到这种设置。本文使用雅芳亲子纵向研究(1990-2005)的数据作为例证。
The study of mediation has a long tradition in the social sciences and a relatively more recent one in epidemiology. The first school is linked to path analysis and structural equation models (SEMs), while the second is related mostly to methods developed within the potential outcomes approach to causal inference. By giving model-free definitions of direct and indirect effects and clear assumptions for their identification, the latter school has formalized notions intuitively developed in the former and has greatly increased the flexibility of the models involved. However, through its predominant focus on nonparametric identification, the causal inference approach to effect decomposition via natural effects is limited to settings that exclude intermediate confounders. Such confounders are naturally dealt with (albeit with the caveats of informality and modeling inflexibility) in the SEM framework. Therefore, it seems pertinent to revisit SEMs with intermediate confounders, armed with the formal definitions and (parametric) identification assumptions from causal inference. Here we investigate: 1) how identification assumptions affect the specification of SEMs, 2) whether the more restrictive SEM assumptions can be relaxed, and 3) whether existing sensitivity analyses can be extended to this setting. Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (1990–2005) are used for illustration.
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