Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37231326›Full record

ArticleBehavior research methods2024

Sample size and power calculations for causal mediation analysis: A Tutorial and Shiny App.

Xu Qin

Erratum issuedOpen access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Behavior research methods, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed
22.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
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

29 citing papers in PubMed, 65 citations in OpenAlex.

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  5. Water intake mediates cross-sectional associations between urinary kidney injury biomarkers and race in emerging adults.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2026
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  16. Perceived Weight Discrimination and General Coping Strategies.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025
    Article
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  20. Where is the Power in a Power Analysis?International journal of exercise science · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Xu QinDepartment of Health and Human Development at the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, 5312 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, 230 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA. xuqin@pitt.edu.
University of Pittsburgh · US

Funding

Statistical methods for population-level cell-type-specific analyses of tissue omics data for Alzheimer's diseaseR01AG080590 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI Christopher McKennan, Jiebiao Wang · 2023 to 2026
$1.5M
NIA NIH HHS R01 AG080590
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

When designing a study for causal mediation analysis, it is crucial to conduct a power analysis to determine the sample size required to detect the causal mediation effects with sufficient power. However, the development of power analysis methods for causal mediation analysis has lagged far behind. To fill the knowledge gap, I proposed a simulation-based method and an easy-to-use web application ( https://xuqin.shinyapps.io/CausalMediationPowerAnalysis/ ) for power and sample size calculations for regression-based causal mediation analysis. By repeatedly drawing samples of a specific size from a population predefined with hypothesized models and parameter values, the method calculates the power to detect a causal mediation effect based on the proportion of the replications with a significant test result. The Monte Carlo confidence interval method is used for testing so that the sampling distributions of causal effect estimates are allowed to be asymmetric, and the power analysis runs faster than if the bootstrapping method is adopted. This also guarantees that the proposed power analysis tool is compatible with the widely used R package for causal mediation analysis, mediation, which is built upon the same estimation and inference method. In addition, users can determine the sample size required for achieving sufficient power based on power values calculated from a range of sample sizes. The method is applicable to a randomized or nonrandomized treatment, a mediator, and an outcome that can be either binary or continuous. I also provided sample size suggestions under various scenarios and a detailed guideline of app implementation to facilitate study designs.

Indexed as

Mobile ApplicationsCausalityComputer SimulationHumansNegotiatingSample SizeCausalMediationPower analysisR Shiny app

Identifiers

PMID37231326
OpenAlexW4378193586

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.