ReviewEarly human development2014
Approaches for drawing causal inferences from epidemiological birth cohorts: a review.
Review in Early human development, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 9 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
79 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Are there non-linear relationships between alcohol consumption and long-term health?: a systematic review of observational studies employing approaches to improve causal inference.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Pooled it
- Research Review: Developmental origins of depression - a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2021Pooled it
- Evidence of detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on offspring birthweight and neurodevelopment from a systematic review of quasi-experimental studies.International journal of epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- The association between early life mental health and alcohol use behaviours in adulthood: A systematic review.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Maternal obesity in pregnancy impacts offspring cardiometabolic health: Systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2019Pooled it
- The Urban Exposome during Pregnancy and Its Socioeconomic Determinants.Environmental health perspectives · 2018Pooled it
- Maternal alcohol consumption and offspring DNA methylation: findings from six general population-based birth cohorts.Epigenomics · 2018Pooled it
- Maternal BMI at the start of pregnancy and offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation: findings from the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium.Human molecular genetics · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Infant adiposity following a randomised controlled trial of a behavioural intervention in obese pregnancy.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2017Trial
- Global early-life cohorts for nutrition-neurodevelopment research including over 100 datasets representing over one million children.iScience · 2026Article
- Genetically Informed Research Designs in Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology: A Methodological Overview.Drug safety · 2026Review
- Natural variation in transplacental transfer efficiency exposes distinct transcriptional network architectures of PFAS effects on birth weight and gestational age.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Paternal and maternal exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and birth outcomes: a multi-country cohort study.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Article
- Observational birth cohorts for causal and predictive inference: The example of childhood asthma and allergic diseases.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2025Review
- Prenatal Exposure to Synthetic Phenols Assessed in Multiple Urine Samples and Dysregulation of Steroid Hormone Homeostasis in Two European Cohorts.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Paternal and Maternal Exposures to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Child Behavioral Difficulties: A Parental Comparison Study.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Prenatal maternal stress: triangulating evidence for intrauterine exposure effects on birth and early childhood outcomes across multiple approaches.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- European Respiratory Society Research Seminar on Preventing Pediatric Asthma.Pediatric pulmonology · 2025Review
- DNA methylation in cord blood partially mediates the effects of prepregnancy BMI on early childhood offspring BMI.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Large-scale population-based birth cohorts, which recruit women during pregnancy or at birth and follow up their offspring through infancy and into childhood and adolescence, provide the opportunity to monitor and model early life exposures in relation to developmental characteristics and later life outcomes. However, due to confounding and other limitations, identification of causal risk factors has proved challenging and published findings are often not reproducible. A suite of methods has been developed in recent years to minimise problems afflicting observational epidemiology, to strengthen causal inference and to provide greater insights into modifiable intra-uterine and early life risk factors. The aim of this review is to describe these causal inference methods and to suggest how they may be applied in the context of birth cohorts and extended along with the development of birth cohort consortia and expansion of "omic" technologies.
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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.