ArticleContemporary clinical trials communications2017
Comparison of methods for the analysis of relatively simple mediation models.
Article in Contemporary clinical trials communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- Improving mental health and well-being of hospital staff: mixed-methods process evaluation of the SEEGEN trial.BMC public health · 2025Trial
- Linking childhood emotional abuse and depressive symptoms: The role of emotion dysregulation and interpersonal problems.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Diet and Physical Activity as Mediators of Weight Loss in a Digital Prostate Cancer Survivorship Intervention for Men: Secondary Analysis of the PC-PEP Randomized Trial.American journal of men's healthTrial
- The sports-education-health nexus: assessing psychological, cognitive, and social outcomes in a public health framework.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Neighborhood Retail Food Environment, Diet Quality and Type 2 Diabetes Incidence in 4 Dutch Cohorts.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Urban green spaces and mental health: Findings from Uganda.Hygiene and environmental health advances · 2025Article
- Testing a systematically braided alcohol reduction and HIV status neutral intervention among people receiving STI care in Malawi: study protocol for a pilot hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Practical challenges in mediation analysis: a guide for applied researchers.Health services & outcomes research methodology · 2025Article
- Article
- Long-Term Socioeconomic and Mental Health Changes After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Women and Men.Circulation. Cardiovascular quality and outcomes · 2024Article
- Can Early Intervention have a Sustained Effect on Human Capital?The Journal of human resources · 2024Article
- Childhood adversity and suicidal ideation in older Korean adults: unraveling the mediating mechanisms of mental health, physical health, and social relationships.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Sex Differences in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Survival Trends.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Questions of value, questions of magnitude: An exploration and application of methods for comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models.Behavior research methods · 2023Article
- The contribution of prognostic factors to socio-demographic inequalities in breast cancer survival in Victoria, Australia.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Statistical Mediation Analysis for Models with a Binary Mediator and a Binary Outcome: the Differences Between Causal and Traditional Mediation Analysis.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2023Article
- Dietary Temperature's Influence on Energy Balance in Humans: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial and Crossover Design.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- The mediating role of attachment and anger: exploring the impact of maternal early-life maltreatment on child abuse potential.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Assessing the Robustness of Mediation Analysis Results Using Multiverse Analysis.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsStatistical mediation analysis is an often used method in trials, to unravel the pathways underlying the effect of an intervention on a particular outcome variable. Throughout the years, several methods have been proposed, such as ordinary least square (OLS) regression, structural equation modeling (SEM), and the potential outcomes framework. Most applied researchers do not know that these methods are mathematically equivalent when applied to mediation models with a continuous mediator and outcome variable. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to demonstrate the similarities between OLS regression, SEM, and the potential outcomes framework in three mediation models: 1) a crude model, 2) a confounder-adjusted model, and 3) a model with an interaction term for exposure-mediator interaction.
methodsSecondary data analysis of a randomized controlled trial that included 546 schoolchildren. In our data example, the mediator and outcome variable were both continuous. We compared the estimates of the total, direct and indirect effects, proportion mediated, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the indirect effect across OLS regression, SEM, and the potential outcomes framework.
resultsOLS regression, SEM, and the potential outcomes framework yielded the same effect estimates in the crude mediation model, the confounder-adjusted mediation model, and the mediation model with an interaction term for exposure-mediator interaction.
conclusionsSince OLS regression, SEM, and the potential outcomes framework yield the same results in three mediation models with a continuous mediator and outcome variable, researchers can continue using the method that is most convenient to them.
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