When the Ends do not Justify the Means: Learning Who is Predicted to Have Harmful Indirect Effects.

ABSTRACT: There is a growing literature on finding rules by which to assign treatment based on an individual's characteristics such that a desired outcome under the intervention is maximized. A related goal entails identifying a subpopulation of individuals predicted to have a harmful indirect effect (the effect of treatment on an outcome through mediators), perhaps even in the presence of a predicted beneficial total treatment effect. In some cases, the implications of a likely harmful indirect effect may outweigh an anticipated beneficial total treatment effect, and would motivate further discussion of whether to treat identified individuals. We build on the mediation and optimal treatment rule literatures to propose a method of identifying a subgroup for which the treatment effect through the med

SUBMITTER: Rudolph KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10312488 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature