Mediational E-values: Approximate Sensitivity Analysis for Unmeasured Mediator-Outcome Confounding.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mediation analysis is a powerful tool for understanding mechanisms, but conclusions about direct and indirect effects will be invalid if there is unmeasured confounding of the mediator-outcome relationship. Sensitivity analysis methods allow researchers to assess the extent of this bias but are not always used. One particularly straightforward technique that requires minimal assumptions is nonetheless difficult to interpret, and so would benefit from a more intuitive parameterization.

Methods

We conducted an exhaustive numerical search over simulated mediation effects, calculating the proportion of scenarios in which a bound for unmeasured mediator-outcome confounding held under an alternative parameterization.

Results

In over 99% of cases, the bound for th

SUBMITTER: Smith LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6768718 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature