Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34079988›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2021

Invited Commentary: The Promise and Pitfalls of Causal Inference With Multivariate Environmental Exposures.

Corwin M Zigler

Abstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing 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

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Synergy of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in Air Pollution Health Effects Studies.International statistical review = Revue internationale de statistique · 2022
    Article
  6. The Future of Causal Inference.American journal of epidemiology · 2022
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Corwin M Zigler

Funding

Causal Inference with Interference for Evaluating Air Quality PoliciesR01ES026217 · NIEHS · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · PI ZIGLER, CORWIN MATTHEW · 2016 to 2021
$2.2M
NIEHS NIH HHS R01 ES026217
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The accompanying article by Keil et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2021;190(12):2647-2657) deploys Bayesian g-computation to investigate the causal effect of 6 airborne metal exposures linked to power-plant emissions on birth weight. In so doing, it articulates the potential value of framing the analysis of environmental mixtures as an explicit contrast between exposure distributions that might arise in response to a well-defined intervention-here, the decommissioning of coal plants. Framing the mixture analysis as that of an approximate "target trial" is an important approach that deserves incorporation into the already rich literature on the analysis of environmental mixtures. However, its deployment in the power plant example highlights challenges that can arise when the target trial is at odds with the exposure distribution observed in the data, a discordance that seems particularly difficult in studies of environmental mixtures. Bayesian methodology such as model averaging and informative priors can help, but they are ultimately limited for overcoming this salient challenge.

Indexed as

Environmental ExposureBayes TheoremCausalityHumansBayesian inferencecausal inferenceenvironmental mixturespower plants

Identifiers

PMID34079988
PMCPMC8796803

What OpenQuestion holds

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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.