Discovering Heterogeneous Exposure Effects Using Randomization Inference in Air Pollution Studies.

ABSTRACT: Several studies have provided strong evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution, even at low levels, increases risk of mortality. As regulatory actions are becoming prohibitively expensive, robust evidence to guide the development of targeted interventions to protect the most vulnerable is needed. In this paper, we introduce a novel statistical method that (i) discovers subgroups whose effects substantially differ from the population mean, and (ii) uses randomization-based tests to assess discovered heterogeneous effects. Also, we develop a sensitivity analysis method to assess the robustness of the conclusions to unmeasured confounding bias. Via simulation studies and theoretical arguments, we demonstrate that hypothesis testing focusing on the discovered subgroups can substantiall

SUBMITTER: Lee K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9616014 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature