ArticleHealth & place2014
Stepping towards causation in studies of neighborhood and environmental effects: how twin research can overcome problems of selection and reverse causation.
Article in Health & place, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- A cross-sectional and prospective examination of alcohol use and misuse among adult twin and sibling pairs discordant for neighborhood socio-economic disadvantage.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- The Interplay of Genes and Environment Across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) Consortium After Fifteen Years.Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies · 2026Article
- The Association between the Obesogenic Environment and BMI Independent of Familial Factors: A Cross-Sectional Twin Study.Obesity facts · 2026Article
- Cross-Sectional Study of Location-Based Built Environments, Physical Activity, Dietary Intake, and Body Mass Index in Adult Twins.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Neighborhood Deprivation Moderates Shared and Unique Environmental Influences on Hazardous Drinking: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Co-Twin Study.Substance use & misuse · 2020Article
- Social-relational exposures and well-being: Using multivariate twin data to rule-out heritable and shared environmental confounds.Journal of research in personality · 2019Article
- Cohort Profile: TWINS study of environment, lifestyle behaviours and health.International journal of epidemiology · 2019Article
- Neighborhood Tax Foreclosures, Educational Attainment, and Preterm Birth among Urban African American Women.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Higher residential and employment densities are associated with more objectively measured walking in the home neighborhood.Journal of transport & health · 2019Article
- Bringing health into transportation and land use scenario planning: Creating a National Public Health Assessment Model (N-PHAM).Journal of transport & health · 2018Article
- Biases Inherent in Studies of Coffee Consumption in Early Pregnancy and the Risks of Subsequent Events.Nutrients · 2018Review
- Associations between neighbourhood characteristics and depression: a twin study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2018Article
- Examination of Cross-Sectional Associations of Neighborhood Deprivation and Alcohol Outlet Density With Hazardous Drinking Using a Twin Design.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2018Article
- Associations of Neighborhood Crime and Safety and With Changes in Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.American journal of epidemiology · 2017Article
- Neighborhood deprivation and depression in adult twins: genetics and gene×environment interaction.Psychological medicine · 2017Article
- Cross Sectional Association between Spatially Measured Walking Bouts and Neighborhood Walkability.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2016Article
- Local area disadvantage and gambling involvement and disorder: Evidence for gene-environment correlation and interaction.Journal of abnormal psychology · 2015Article
- Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2015Article
- Quasi-causal associations of physical activity and neighborhood walkability with body mass index: a twin study.Preventive medicine · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
No causal evidence is available to translate associations between neighborhood characteristics and health outcomes into beneficial changes to built environments. Observed associations may be causal or result from uncontrolled confounds related to family upbringing. Twin designs can help neighborhood effects studies overcome selection and reverse causation problems in specifying causal mechanisms. Beyond quantifying genetic effects (i.e., heritability coefficients), we provide examples of innovative measures and analytic methods that use twins as quasi-experimental controls for confounding by environmental effects. We conclude that collaboration among investigators from multiple fields can move the field forward by designing studies that step toward causation.
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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.