Causal Mediation Analysis - Online Course
Monday, May 13 —
Monday, June 10, 2024
Each Monday you will receive an email with instructions for the following week.
All course materials are available 24 hours a day. Materials will be accessible for an additional 2 weeks after the official close on June 10.
Causal mediation analysis offers a sophisticated method to understand the mechanisms through which an intervention or treatment exerts its effects on an outcome. This type of analysis is crucial for identifying the indirect effects mediated through specific variables, allowing researchers to dissect the causal pathways and potentially target these mechanisms more effectively in future interventions.
Causal mediation analysis extends beyond conventional mediation analysis by providing a framework to evaluate potential causal roles of mediators. It enables researchers to estimate both direct effects of a treatment or exposure on an outcome and indirect effects that operate through one or more mediators. This is particularly important in fields like public health, education, and social sciences, where understanding the underlying processes can lead to more effective interventions and policies.
This seminar will focus on some of the recent developments in causal mediation analysis and will provide practical tools to implement those techniques. The course will discuss the relationship between traditional methods for mediation in the biomedical and social sciences and new methods of causal inference for dichotomous, continuous, and time-to-event outcomes.
The course takes place online in a series of four weekly installments of videos, quizzes, readings, and exercises, and requires about 8 hours/week. You may participate at your own convenience; there are no set times when you are required to be online.
This four-week course can be accessed with any recent web browser on almost any platform, including iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. It consists of several modules, which contain videos of the 4-day livestream version of the course in its entirety. Each module is followed by a short multiple-choice quiz to test your knowledge. There are also weekly exercises that ask you to apply what you’ve learned to a real data set.
There is also an online discussion forum where participants can post questions or comments about any aspect of the course. All questions will be promptly answered by Dr. Valeri.
More details about the course content
We will also consider when standard approaches to mediation analysis are valid and when they are not valid. These approaches will be extended to more complex settings, such as in the presence of exposure-mediator interaction. The no-confounding assumptions needed for these techniques will be discussed in detail. SAS, SPSS, Stata macros, and R packages to implement mediation methods will be distributed to course participants. Implementation of mediation analysis approaches under the counterfactual framework will be illustrated in hands on laboratories.
Other topics include the use and implementation of sensitivity analysis (to assess how sensitive conclusions are to violations of assumptions) and extensions to the setting of multiple mediators.
The course will be especially valuable for those interested in understanding the theoretical underpinnings of causal mediation analysis as well as in practicing the implementation and interpretation of state-of-the-art causal inference approaches for reproducible causal mediation analyses.
We will also consider when standard approaches to mediation analysis are valid and when they are not valid. These approaches will be extended to more complex settings, such as in the presence of exposure-mediator interaction. The no-confounding assumptions needed for these techniques will be discussed in detail. SAS, SPSS, Stata macros, and R packages to implement mediation methods will be distributed to course participants. Implementation of mediation analysis approaches under the counterfactual framework will be illustrated in hands on laboratories.
Other topics include the use and implementation of sensitivity analysis (to assess how sensitive conclusions are to violations of assumptions) and extensions to the setting of multiple mediators.
The course will be especially valuable for those interested in understanding the theoretical underpinnings of causal mediation analysis as well as in practicing the implementation and interpretation of state-of-the-art causal inference approaches for reproducible causal mediation analyses.
Computing
In all cases, methods will be illustrated using software, with SAS, Stata, R, and SPSS examples and syntax. To do the exercises, you will need to use a computer with a recent version of SAS, Stata, R, or SPSS. SAS, Stata, and R will be supported by the instructor. Macros in SPSS will also be accessible, but SPSS will not be directly supported by the instructor.
There is now a free version of SAS, called SAS OnDemand for Academics, that is available to anyone.
If you’d like to use Stata for this course but don’t yet have much experience with that package, we recommend following along with a “getting started” video like the one here.
Seminar participants who are not yet ready to purchase Stata could take advantage of StataCorp’s free 30-day evaluation offer or their 30-day software return policy.
If you’d like to use R for this course but don’t yet have much experience with that package, here are some excellent on-line resources for building your R skills.
In all cases, methods will be illustrated using software, with SAS, Stata, R, and SPSS examples and syntax. To do the exercises, you will need to use a computer with a recent version of SAS, Stata, R, or SPSS. SAS, Stata, and R will be supported by the instructor. Macros in SPSS will also be accessible, but SPSS will not be directly supported by the instructor.
There is now a free version of SAS, called SAS OnDemand for Academics, that is available to anyone.
If you’d like to use Stata for this course but don’t yet have much experience with that package, we recommend following along with a “getting started” video like the one here.
Seminar participants who are not yet ready to purchase Stata could take advantage of StataCorp’s free 30-day evaluation offer or their 30-day software return policy.
If you’d like to use R for this course but don’t yet have much experience with that package, here are some excellent on-line resources for building your R skills.
Who should register?
Course prerequisites: Familiarity with linear and logistic regression. Some knowledge of counterfactual or potential outcomes notation is helpful, but not necessary.
Course prerequisites: Familiarity with linear and logistic regression. Some knowledge of counterfactual or potential outcomes notation is helpful, but not necessary.
Seminar outline
1. Concepts and methods for mediation
2. Sensitivity analysis
3. Mediation with time-to-event outcome
4. Multiple mediators
5. Surrogate outcomes
6. A unification of mediation and interaction
1. Concepts and methods for mediation
2. Sensitivity analysis
3. Mediation with time-to-event outcome
4. Multiple mediators
5. Surrogate outcomes
6. A unification of mediation and interaction
Registration instructions
The fee of $695 (USD) includes all course materials. All major credit cards are accepted.
This course is hosted on a platform called DigitalChalk. To register, you’ll need to go to statisticalhorizons.digitalchalk.com and click on Create Account. Then you will enter your name and email address, and create a password. Be sure to save your password because you will need it to logon to the course itself.
When you have created your account, you’ll be taken to your new home page. Click on the Register Now button (or click the Catalog icon on the left-hand column), and you’ll see “Causal Mediation Analysis” as one of the available courses. At the bottom of the box for that course, click the green button Add to Cart. Next click the green button at the top that says Checkout. You will then be prompted for your credit card information.
When you have finished the payment process, you will be taken back to your home page. Click on Dashboard to see Causal Mediation Analysis. When the course begins on May 13, you can click the play button to get started.
The fee of $695 (USD) includes all course materials. All major credit cards are accepted.
This course is hosted on a platform called DigitalChalk. To register, you’ll need to go to statisticalhorizons.digitalchalk.com and click on Create Account. Then you will enter your name and email address, and create a password. Be sure to save your password because you will need it to logon to the course itself.
When you have created your account, you’ll be taken to your new home page. Click on the Register Now button (or click the Catalog icon on the left-hand column), and you’ll see “Causal Mediation Analysis” as one of the available courses. At the bottom of the box for that course, click the green button Add to Cart. Next click the green button at the top that says Checkout. You will then be prompted for your credit card information.
When you have finished the payment process, you will be taken back to your home page. Click on Dashboard to see Causal Mediation Analysis. When the course begins on May 13, you can click the play button to get started.