ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2012
Invited commentary: structural equation models and epidemiologic analysis.
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Applications of causal and structural equation modeling in epidemiology: a systematic and critical review.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Pooled it
- Mendelian randomisation approaches to the study of prenatal exposures: A systematic review.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Impact pathways of a homestead food production programme on women's dietary diversity in Bangladesh.Nature food · 2026Trial
- The role of the working alliance in treatment for alcohol problems.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2015Trial
- Posttreatment motivation and alcohol treatment outcome 9 months later: findings from structural equation modeling.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2015Trial
- Understanding treatment effect mechanisms of the CAMBRA randomized trial in reducing caries increment.Journal of dental research · 2015Trial
- Causal Inference in Clinical Research: A Primer.Journal of periodontal research · 2026Review
- Association of armed conflict and global measles cases: A structural equation modeling analysis of 193 countries from 2000 to 2023.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Associations between historical redlining and BMI: Potential indirect pathways through neighborhood socioeconomic and environment factors and their associated lifestyle behaviors in CARDIA.Health & place · 2026Article
- Knowledge, attitude, and practice of central line-associated bloodstream infection prevention among intensive care unit nurses in Hebei Province, China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A Bayesian life-course linear structural equations model (BLSEM) to explore the development of body mass index (BMI) from the prenatal stage until middle age.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- Do older Hispanic immigrants receive more from public assistance?The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- Structural equation modeling of factors influencing women's attitudes, comfort and willingness toward risk-stratified breast cancer screening.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A Bayesian high-dimensional mediation analysis for multilevel genome-wide epigenetic data.Journal of applied statistics · 2025Article
- Structural Equation Modelling as a Proof-of-Concept Tool for Mediation Mechanisms Between Topical Antibiotic Prophylaxis and Six Types of Blood Stream Infection Among ICU Patients.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The mediating role of behavioral risk factors in the pathway between childhood disadvantage and adult psychological distress in a Finnish employee cohort.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Deworming and micronutrient status by community open defecation prevalence: An observational study using nationally representative data from India, 2016-2018.PLoS medicine · 2024Observational
- Does adult socioeconomic status mediate the relationship between adolescent socioeconomic status and adult quality of life?SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- Incivility, bullying, and poor health and well-being among students: a Swedish national study in higher education institutions.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Comment on
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
In this commentary, structural equation models (SEMs) are discussed as a tool for epidemiologic analysis. Such models are related to and compared with other analytic approaches often used in epidemiology, including regression analysis, causal diagrams, causal mediation analysis, and marginal structural models. Several of these other approaches in fact developed out of the SEM literature. However, SEMs themselves tend to make much stronger assumptions than these other techniques. SEMs estimate more types of effects than do these other techniques, but this comes at the price of additional assumptions. Many of these assumptions have often been ignored and not carefully evaluated when SEMs have been used in practice. In light of the strong assumptions employed by SEMs, the author argues that they should be used principally for the purposes of exploratory analysis and hypothesis generation when a broad range of effects are potentially of interest.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.