ArticleAnnals of epidemiology2022
Estimating sibling spillover effects with unobserved confounding using gain-scores.
Article in Annals of epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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.
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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Indirect genetic effects of siblings.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- On spillovers in economic evaluations: definition, mapping review and research agenda.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Review
- Spillover effects of gestational age on sibling's literacy.Early child development and care · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeA growing area of research in epidemiology is the identification of health-related sibling spillover effects, or the effect of one individual's exposure on their sibling's outcome. The health within families may be confounded by unobserved factors, rendering identification of sibling spillovers challenging.
methodsWe demonstrate a gain-score (fixed effects) regression method for identifying exposure-to-outcome spillover effects within sibling pairs in linear models. The method identifies the exposure-to-outcome spillover effect if only one sibling's exposure affects the other's outcome, and it identifies the difference between the spillover effects if both siblings' exposures affect the others' outcomes. The method fails with outcome-to-exposure spillover or with outcome-to-outcome spillover. Analytic results, Monte Carlo simulations, and a brief application demonstrate the method and its limitations.
resultsWe estimate the spillover effect of a child's preterm birth on an older sibling's literacy skills, measured by the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Kindergarten test. We analyze 20,010 sibling pairs from a population-wide, Wisconsin-based (United States) birth cohort. Without covariate adjustment, we estimate that preterm birth modestly decreases an older sibling's test score.
conclusionsGain-scores are a promising strategy for identifying exposure-to-outcome spillover effects in sibling pairs while controlling for sibling-invariant unobserved confounding.
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Registered trials
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