Causal Mediation Analysis of Survival Outcome with Multiple Mediators.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mediation analyses have been a popular approach to investigate the effect of an exposure on an outcome through a mediator. Mediation models with multiple mediators have been proposed for continuous and dichotomous outcomes. However, development of multimediator models for survival outcomes is still limited.

Methods

We present methods for multimediator analyses using three survival models: Aalen additive hazard models, Cox proportional hazard models, and semiparametric probit models. Effects through mediators can be characterized by path-specific effects, for which definitions and identifiability assumptions are provided. We derive closed-form expressions for path-specific effects for the three models, which are intuitively interpreted using a causal diagram.

Re

SUBMITTER: Huang YT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5408128 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature