Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Many questions in life course epidemiology involve mediation and/or interaction because of the long latency period between exposures and outcomes. In this paper, we explore how mediation analysis (based on counterfactual theory and implemented using conventional regression approaches) links with a structured approach to selecting life course hypotheses. Using theory and simulated data, we show how the alternative life course hypotheses assessed in the structured life course approach correspond to different combinations of mediation and interaction parameters. For example, an early life critical period model corresponds to a direct effect of the early life exposure, but no indirect effect via the mediator and no interaction between the early life exposure and the mediator. We also compare these methods using an illustrative real-data example using data on parental occupational social class (early life exposure), own adult occupational social class (mediator) and physical capability (outcome).
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyw254
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G1073566961, G2164340656, G235045266, G2558836995, Early life adversity and trajectories of cardiometabolic health, cognitive function and physical function: improving understanding of the mechanisms and potential reversibility, G2673957436, G3233549029, G3333310443, G3357115846, G3622684409, G3698676395, Life course inequalities in asthma: estimating its burden and understanding its aetiology., G4009103782, G4182683118, G4186552615, Obstetric, lifestyle and genetic determinants of atherosclerosis, fat mass, insulin, glucose and lipid levels in women in early middle age, G4884678108, G519761550, The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children: An international resource for population genomics and lifecourse epidemiology. Core Programme Support 2011-2013., G5470336846, G5608103526, G6119919417, G6285097384, Early life adversity and trajectories of cardiometabolic health, cognitive function and physical function: improving understanding of the mechanisms a, G6643270444, G6689231961, G6737906592, Identification of normal and at-risk trajectories of blood pressure in pregnancy in relation to offspring perinatal health and childhood development, G7176959672, G7313382374, Life course epidemiology of women's reproductive health and its relation to chronic disease, G7758688404, Mediation analysis in life course epidemiology: methodological innovation and application to studies of obesity and cardiometabolic health, G7955001620, G8056893570, G8518790725, G8728195065, G8907334132
OpenAlex ID: W2526909771