ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2018
Negative control exposure studies in the presence of measurement error: implications for attempted effect estimate calibration.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 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
39 citing papers in PubMed.
- The validity of test-negative design for assessment of typhoid conjugate vaccine protection: comparison of estimates by different study designs using data from a cluster-randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Trial
- Negative controls and how to use them: a guidance paper.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Metformin versus DPP-4 inhibitors and risk of parkinsonism in type 2 diabetes: an active-comparator cohort study with a landmark design.Diabetology & metabolic syndrome · 2026Article
- Extensive cryptic circulation sustains mpox among men who have sex with men.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Association Between Maternal Genome-Wide Polygenic Scores for Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Adverse Perinatal Events: A Danish Population-Based Study.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Risk of Seizure Associated With Concomitant Use of Tramadol and Antidepressants in Older Nursing Home Residents.Neurology · 2025Article
- Conceptualizing Experimental Controls Using the Potential Outcomes Framework.The American statistician · 2025Article
- Exposure to daily mean and maximum 1-hour PMEnvironmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Paternal and Maternal Exposures to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Child Behavioral Difficulties: A Parental Comparison Study.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Association of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccination With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Among Older Adult Recipients of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccines: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Non-linear Mendelian randomization: detection of biases using negative controls with a focus on BMI, Vitamin D and LDL cholesterol.European journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Assessing causal links between age at menarche and adolescent mental health: a Mendelian randomisation study.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Causal Estimation of Long-term Intervention Cost-effectiveness Using Genetic Instrumental Variables: An Application to Cancer.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2024Article
- Integrating multiple lines of evidence to assess the effects of maternal BMI on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Maternal prenatal cholesterol levels predict offspring weight trajectories during childhood in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Intergenerational educational trajectories and premature mortality from chronic diseases: A registry population-based study.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Article
- Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Among Older Adults Receiving Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Suggests Interactions Between Streptococcus pneumoniae and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in the Respiratory Tract.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Handling unobserved confounding in the relation between prenatal risk factors and child outcomes: a latent variable strategy.European journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Negative control exposure studies are increasingly being used in epidemiological studies to strengthen causal inference regarding an exposure-outcome association when unobserved confounding is thought to be present. Negative control exposure studies contrast the magnitude of association of the negative control, which has no causal effect on the outcome but is associated with the unmeasured confounders in the same way as the exposure, with the magnitude of the association of the exposure with the outcome. A markedly larger effect of the exposure on the outcome than the negative control on the outcome strengthens inference that the exposure has a causal effect on the outcome. Methods: We investigate the effect of measurement error in the exposure and negative control variables on the results obtained from a negative control exposure study. We do this in models with continuous and binary exposure and negative control variables using analysis of the bias of the estimated coefficients and Monte Carlo simulations. Results: Our results show that measurement error in either the exposure or negative control variables can bias the estimated results from the negative control exposure study. Conclusions: Measurement error is common in the variables used in epidemiological studies; these results show that negative control exposure studies cannot be used to precisely determine the size of the effect of the exposure variable, or adequately adjust for unobserved confounding; however, they can be used as part of a body of evidence to aid inference as to whether a causal effect of the exposure on the outcome is present.
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Registered trials
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