ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2021
A directed acyclic graph for interactions.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Robustness of reported postacute health outcomes in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review.Archives of disease in childhood · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Investigating Disparities in Prescription Drug Use Among Mexican Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- HybridGNN: a graph neural network approach for human miRNA-disease association prediction.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Micronutrients as Mitigators of Endocrine Disrupting Chemical Health Effects: A Scoping Review and Framework for Epidemiologic Studies.Current environmental health reports · 2026Article
- Multivariate patterns of plasma biomarkers predict region-specific Alzheimer's pathology and cognitive decline across independent cohorts.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Ozone exposure is positively correlated with the occurrence of Kawasaki disease in Chinese children.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- The role of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in the effect of Azithromycin on Child Mortality: A Secondary Analysis of the CHAT Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- The role of seasonal malaria chemoprevention in the effect of azithromycin on child mortality: A secondary analysis of the CHAT cluster randomized clinical trial.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Candidate-gene studies related to drug pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety, and efficacy in the era of extensive technological developments: could we empower them by more efficient implementation of established epidemiological concepts?Croatian medical journal · 2024Article
- PUTransGCN: identification of piRNA-disease associations based on attention encoding graph convolutional network and positive unlabelled learning.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2024Article
- Article
- The effect of education on dental service utilization patterns in different sectors: A multiple mediation analysis.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2023Article
- Incorporating causal inference perspectives into psychoneuroimmunology: A simulation study highlighting concerns about controlling for adiposity in immunopsychiatry.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Examining the continuum of resistance model in two population-based screening studies in Sweden.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Racial and ethnic inequities of palliative care use among advanced Non-Small cell lung cancer patients in the US.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- The Relation Between Travel Distance and Overall Survival for HPV-Associated Cancers in a High-Burden State.Journal of registry management · 2023Article
- Jumping on the Bandwagon: The Role of Voters' Social Class in Poll Effects in the Context of the 2021 German Federal Election.Politische Vierteljahresschrift · 2023Article
- Application of Graphs in a One Health Framework.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2023Article
- Sufficient component cause simulations: an underutilized epidemiologic teaching tool.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2023Article
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDirected acyclic graphs (DAGs) are of great help when researchers try to understand the nature of causal relationships and the consequences of conditioning on different variables. One fundamental feature of causal relations that has not been incorporated into the standard DAG framework is interaction, i.e. when the effect of one variable (on a chosen scale) depends on the value that another variable is set to. In this paper, we propose a new type of DAG-the interaction DAG (IDAG), which can be used to understand this phenomenon.
methodsThe IDAG works like any DAG but instead of including a node for the outcome, it includes a node for a causal effect. We introduce concepts such as confounded interaction and total, direct and indirect interaction, showing that these can be depicted in ways analogous to how similar concepts are depicted in standard DAGs. This also allows for conclusions on which treatment interactions to account for empirically. Moreover, since generalizability can be compromised in the presence of underlying interactions, the framework can be used to illustrate threats to generalizability and to identify variables to account for in order to make results valid for the target population.
conclusionsThe IDAG allows for a both intuitive and stringent way of illustrating interactions. It helps to distinguish between causal and non-causal mechanisms behind effect variation. Conclusions about how to empirically estimate interactions can be drawn-as well as conclusions about how to achieve generalizability in contexts where interest lies in estimating an overall effect.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.