SynthesisBMC research notes2016
Implementation and reporting of causal mediation analysis in 2015: a systematic review in epidemiological studies.
Synthesis in BMC research notes, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 5 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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psychological mediators of the associations between adverse and benevolent childhood experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of traumatic stress · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of mediation analysis frameworks in studies examining the determinants of cardiometabolic outcomes in people living with HIV.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Reporting Quality of Observational Studies That Use Mediation Analyses.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2022Pooled it
- Sleep and Pain: A Systematic Review of Studies of Mediation.The Clinical journal of pain · 2019Pooled it
- Mediation analysis with a time-to-event outcome: a review of use and reporting in healthcare research.BMC medical research methodology · 2018Pooled it
- Applications and reporting of causal inference modelling in infectious disease studies: A systematic review.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Metal Mixtures Mediate the Socioeconomic Gradient in Blood Pressure: A Four-Way Decomposition in a Prospective Rural Bangladeshi Cohort.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Association between medical insurance and life satisfaction among middle-aged and older adults in China: the mediating role of depression.Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E · 2025Article
- Practical challenges in mediation analysis: a guide for applied researchers.Health services & outcomes research methodology · 2025Article
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- Article
- Medical Complexity Mediates Healthcare Resource Use in the Socially Vulnerable.Journal of healthcare management / American College of Healthcare Executives · 2022Observational
- Is prosocial behaviour a missing link between green space quality and child health-related outcomes?Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Article
- Mother's care-seeking behavior for neonatal danger signs from qualified providers in rural Bangladesh: A generalized structural equation modeling and mediation analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Mediation analysis methods used in observational research: a scoping review and recommendations.BMC medical research methodology · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Development of A Guideline for Reporting Mediation Analyses (AGReMA).BMC medical research methodology · 2020Article
- Article
- Association of Frailty With Failure to Rescue After Low-Risk and High-Risk Inpatient Surgery.JAMA surgery · 2018Article
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
backgroundCausal mediation analysis is often used to understand the impact of variables along the causal pathway of an occurrence relation. How well studies apply and report the elements of causal mediation analysis remains unknown.
methodsWe systematically reviewed epidemiological studies published in 2015 that employed causal mediation analysis to estimate direct and indirect effects of observed associations between an exposure on an outcome. We identified potential epidemiological studies through conducting a citation search within Web of Science and a keyword search within PubMed. Two reviewers independently screened studies for eligibility. For eligible studies, one reviewer performed data extraction, and a senior epidemiologist confirmed the extracted information. Empirical application and methodological details of the technique were extracted and summarized.
resultsThirteen studies were eligible for data extraction. While the majority of studies reported and identified the effects of measures, most studies lacked sufficient details on the extent to which identifiability assumptions were satisfied. Although most studies addressed issues of unmeasured confounders either from empirical approaches or sensitivity analyses, the majority did not examine the potential bias arising from the measurement error of the mediator. Some studies allowed for exposure-mediator interaction and only a few presented results from models both with and without interactions. Power calculations were scarce.
conclusionsReporting of causal mediation analysis is varied and suboptimal. Given that the application of causal mediation analysis will likely continue to increase, developing standards of reporting of causal mediation analysis in epidemiological research would be prudent.
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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.