ArticleBMC medical research methodology2020
A novel method for controlling unobserved confounding using double confounders.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Utilizing Machine Learning and causal graph approaches to Address Confounding Factors in Health Science Research: A Scoping Review.F1000Research · 2025Article
- Strategies to Address Current Challenges in Real-World Evidence Generation in Japan.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundControlling unobserved confounding still remains a great challenge in observational studies, and a series of strict assumptions of the existing methods usually may be violated in practice. Therefore, it is urgent to put forward a novel method.
methodsWe are interested in the causal effect of an exposure on the outcome, which is always confounded by unobserved confounding. We show that, the causal effect of an exposure on a continuous or categorical outcome is nonparametrically identified through only two independent or correlated available confounders satisfying a non-linear condition on the exposure. Asymptotic theory and variance estimators are developed for each case. We also discuss an extension for more than two binary confounders.
resultsThe simulations show better estimation performance by our approach in contrast to the traditional regression approach adjusting for observed confounders. A real application is separately applied to assess the effects of Body Mass Index (BMI) on Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG), Triglyceride (TG), Total Cholesterol (TC), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) with individuals in Shandong Province, China. Our results suggest that SBP increased 1.60 (95% CI: 0.99-2.93) mmol/L with per 1- kg/m
conclusionsWe propose a novel method to control unobserved confounders through double binary confounders satisfying a non-linear condition on the exposure which is easy to access.
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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.