Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31566208›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2020

Invited Commentary: Counterfactuals in Social Epidemiology-Thinking Outside of "the Box".

Tyler J VanderWeele

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Racism Counterfactuals in Health Research.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Theorizing epidemiology, the stories bodies tell, and embodied truths: a status update on contending 21International journal of social determinants of health and health services · 2024
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Observational
  10. Complex systems models for causal inference in social epidemiology.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2021
    Article
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Tyler J VanderWeele

Funding

Theory and methods for mediation and interactionR01CA222147 · NCI · HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI TCHETGEN TCHETGEN, ERIC JOEL, VANDERWEELE, TYLER · 2018 to 2022
$2.1M
NCI NIH HHS R01 CA222147
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There are tensions inherent between many of the social exposures examined within social epidemiology and the assumptions embedded in quantitative potential-outcomes-based causal inference framework. The potential-outcomes framework characteristically requires a well-defined hypothetical intervention. As noted by Galea and Hernán (Am J Epidemiol. 2020;189(3):167-170), for many social exposures, such well-defined hypothetical exposures do not exist or there is no consensus on what they might be. Nevertheless, the quantitative potential-outcomes framework can still be useful for the study of some of these social exposures by creative adaptations that 1) redefine the exposure, 2) separate the exposure from the hypothetical intervention, or 3) allow for a distribution of hypothetical interventions. These various approaches and adaptations are reviewed and discussed. However, even these approaches have their limits. For certain important historical and social determinants of health such as social movements or wars, the quantitative potential-outcomes framework with well-defined hypothetical interventions is the wrong tool. Other modes of inquiry are needed.

Indexed as

causal inferencecounterfactualsinterventionpotential outcomesracesocial epidemiology

Identifiers

PMID31566208
PMCPMC7217276

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.