Methods for Extending Inferences From Observational Studies: Considering Causal Structures, Identification Assumptions, and Estimators.

ABSTRACT: Most prior work in quantitative approaches to generalizability and transportability emphasizes extending causal effect estimates from randomized trials to target populations. Extending findings from observational studies is also of scientific interest, and identifiability assumptions and estimation methods differ from randomized settings when there is selection on both the exposure and exposure-outcome mediators in combination with exposure-outcome confounders (and both confounders and mediators can modify exposure-outcome effects). We argue that this causal structure is common in observational studies, particularly in the field of life course epidemiology, for example, when extending estimates of the effect of an early-life exposure on a later-life outcome from a cohort enrolled in midlif

SUBMITTER: Hayes-Larson E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11560714 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature