This database provides access to statistical methods materials on the topic of causal inference and longitudinal modelling of particular relevance to life-course epidemiology. It is fed by members of the LifeCycle project as they come along with materials of interest, with a focus on applied methods and educational papers. Many references are accessible to non-specialists.

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Title Domain Authors Year Reference Link Method Type Keywords Comment Lifecycle Tutorial false
A calibration approach to transportability with observational data
Causal Inference Josey KP, Yang F, Ghosh D, Raghavan S 2020 arXiv:2008.06615v1 [stat.ME] https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06615 Original research Transportability; observational studies; generalizability; external validity; confounding; sampling weights; calibration; data-fusion Not peer-reviewed No Show
A critical evaluation of statistical approaches to examining the role of growth trajectories in the developmental origins of health and disease
Longitudinal modelling Tu YK, Tilling K, Sterne JA, Gilthorpe MS 2013 Tu YK, Tilling K, Sterne JA, Gilthorpe MS. A critical evaluation of statistical approaches to examining the role of growth trajectories in the developmental origins of health and disease. Int J Epidemiol. 2013 Oct;42(5):1327-39. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyt157. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/42/5/1327/622212 educational, applied methods Developmental origins of health and disease; birthweight; body weight; cohort studies; growth. No Show
Analysis of Longitudinal Studies With Repeated Outcome Measures: Adjusting for Time-Dependent Confounding Using Conventional Methods
Causal Inference and longitudinal modelling Keogh RH, Daniel RM, VanderWeele TJ, Vansteelandt S 2018 Am J Epidemiol. 2018 May 1;187(5):1085-1092. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx311 Educational direct effect, indirect effect, inverse probability weight, longitudinal study, marginal structural model, sequential conditional mean model, time-varying confounder, total effect No Show
An Introduction to G Methods
Causal Inference Naimi AI, Cole SR, Kennedy EH 2017 Int J Epidemiol. 2017 Apr 1;46(2):756-762. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/2/756/2760169 Educational G Methods; Marginal Structural Model; Structural Nested Model; G Formula; Inverse Probability Weighting; G Estimation; Monte Carlo Estimation No Show
An introduction to instrumental variables for epidemiologists
Causal Inference Greenland S 2000 Int J Epidemiol. 2000 Aug;29(4):722-9. doi: 10.1093/ije/29.4.722 https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/29/4/722/765560 Educational Biometry, causal models, compliance, confounding, econometrics, epidemiological methods, instrumental variables, measurement error, misclassification, regression, regression calibration Two errata were published: https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/29/6/1102/659250; https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/47/1/358/4774623 No Show
Applied causal inference methods for sequential mediators
Causal Inference Zugna D, Popovic M, Fasanelli F, Heude B, Scelo G, Richiardi L 2021 Zugna D, Popovic M, Fasanelli F, Heude B, Scelo G, Richiardi L. Applied causal inference methods for sequential mediators. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2022 Nov 24;22(1):301. doi: 10.1186/s12874-022-01764-w. PMID: 36424556. https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-022-01764-w tutorial mediation analysis, sequential mediators, dierct and indirect effects, weighting, imputation Yes Show
Applied mediation analyses: a review and tutorial
Causal Inference Lange T, Hansen KW, Sørensen R, Galatius S 2017 Epidemiol Health. 2017 Aug 6;39:e2017035. https://www.e-epih.org/upload/pdf/epih-39-e2017035.pdf Tutorial Mediation analysis, Causal inference, Pathway analysis, Acute coronary syndrome, Randomized clinical trials No Show
Applying the exposome concept in birth cohort research: a review of statistical approaches
Exposome and omics Santos S, Maitre L, Warembourg C, Agier L, Richiardi L,  Basagaña  X, Vrijheid M. 2020 Eur J Epidemiol. 2020 Mar;35(3):193-204. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-020-00625-4 Educational birth cohort studies, exposure approaches, correlation, dimensionality, variability Yes Show
Approaches for incorporating environmental mixtures as mediators in mediation analysis
Causal Inference Bellavia A, James-Todd T, Williams PL 2019 Environ Int. 2019 Feb;123:368-374. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.12.024 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201832021X?via%3Dihub Review Environmental mixtures; Environmental epidemiology; Mediation analysis No Show
A Practical Guide to Regression Discontinuity
Causal Inference Jacob R, Zhu P 2012 Web site: www.mdrc.org https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/RDD%20Guide_Full%20rev%202016_0.pdf Educational Regression discontinuity approach, internal validity, generalizability No Show
A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Foundations
Causal Inference Cattaneo MD, Idrobo N, Titiunik R 2019 arXiv:1911.09511v1. doi: 10.1017/9781108684606 https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.09511 Tutorial Regression discontinuity; Econometrics; Computation No Show
A proposal for capturing interaction and effect modification using DAGs
Causal Inference Attia J, Holliday E, Oldmeadow C. 2022 Attia J, Holliday E, Oldmeadow C. A proposal for capturing interaction and effect modification using DAGs. Int J Epidemiol. 2022 Aug 10;51(4):1047-1053. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/51/4/1047/6607680 Opinion interaction, effect modification, confounding, DAGs Erratum in Correction to: A proposal for capturing interaction and effect modification using DAGs. Attia J, Holliday E, Oldmeadow C. Int J Epidemiol. 2022 Jul 20:dyac153. No Show
A review of generalizability and transportability
Causal Inference Degtiar I, Rose S 2021 arXiv:2102.11904v1 [stat.ME] for this version https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.11904#:~:text=Abstract%3A%20When%20assessing%20causal%20effects,generalize%20is%20a%20critical%20decision.&text=Estimates%20from%20randomized%20data%20may,representative%20of%20the%20target%20population. Educational paper external validity; transportability; generalizability Not peer-reviewed No Show
A selective review of negative control methods in epidemiology
Causal Inference Shi X, Miao W, Tchetgen ET 2020 Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2020 Dec;7(4):190-202. doi: 10.1007/s40471-020-00243-4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8118596/ Review Bias correction; Bias detection; Bias reduction; Negative control; Unmeasured confounding No Show
Assessing environmental epidemiology questions in practice with a causal inference pipeline: An investigation of the air pollution‐multiple sclerosis relapses relationship
Causal Inference Sommer AJ, Leray E, Lee Y, Bind MC 2021 Stat Med 2021 Mar 15;40(6):1321-1335. doi: 10.1002/sim.8843 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sim.8843 Applied methods Causal inference; environmental epidemiology; matching; multiple sclerosis; observational data No Show
Assessing Natural Direct and Indirect Effects Through Multiple Pathways
Causal Inference Lange T, Rasmussen M, Thygesen LC 2014 Am J Epidemiol. 2014 Feb 15;179(4):513-518. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt270 Educational causal inference, mediation, multiple mediators No Show
Association of maternal diabetes mellitus in pregnancy with offspring adiposity into early adulthood: sibling study in a prospective cohort of 280,866 men from 248,293 families
Causal Inference Lawlor DA, Lichtenstein P, Långström N. 2011 Circulation. 2011 Jan 25;123(3):258-265. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.980169 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.980169?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed& Applied methods within sibship, developmental origins, causal inference No Show
Association of pre-pregnancy body mass index with offspring metabolic profile: findings from 3 European prospective birth cohorts
Causal Inference Santos Ferreira DL, Williams DM, Kangas AJ, Soininen P, Ala-Korpela M, Davey Smith G, Jarvelin M-R, Lawlor DA 2017 PLoS Med. 2017 Aug 22;14(8):e1002376. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002376 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002376 Applied methods Negative control, metabolomics, developmental origins, parental comparisons No Show
A structured approach to hypotheses involving continuous exposures over the life course
Longitudinal modelling Smith ADAC, Hardy R, Heron J, Lawlor DA, Joinson CJ, Macdonald-Wallis C, Tilling K 2016 Int J Epidemiol. 2016 Aug;45(4):1271-1279. doi:10.1093/ije/dyw164 https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/45/4/1271/2951966 Applied methods Lifecourse models, repeat measures, continuous data No Show
Baseline selection on a collider: a ubiquitous mechanism occurring in both representative and selected cohort studies
Causal Inference Richiardi L, Pearce N, Pagano E, Di Cuonzo D, Zugna D, Pizzi C 2019 J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019 May;73(5):475-480. https://jech.bmj.com/content/73/5/475.long Research article bias; cohort studies; collider bias; representativeness; selection No Show
Best (but oft-forgotten) practices: the design, analysis, and interpretation of Mendelian randomization studies
Causal Inference Haycock PC, Burgess S, Wade KH, Bowden J, Relton C, Davey Smith G 2016 Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Apr;103(4):965-978. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/103/4/965/4564602 Educational Mendelian randomization, practice of MR, writing MR papers, assumptions of MR No Show
Carryover Effects in Sibling Comparison Designs
Causal Inference Sjölander A, Frisell T, Kuja-Halkola R, Öberg S, Zetterqvist J 2016 Epidemiology. 2016 Nov;27(6):852-858. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000000541 https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2016/11000/Carryover_Effects_in_Sibling_Comparison_Designs.12.aspx Educational Siblings design; bias; carryover effect; causal diagrams; confounding No Show
Causal inference and the data-fusion problem
Causal Inference Bareinboim E, Pearl J 2016 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jul 5;113(27):7345-7352. https://www.pnas.org/content/113/27/7345 Research article generalizability, transportability, selection bias, confounding The paper provides a theoretical background; no codes are available for implementation No Show
Causal Inference in Statistics: A Primer
Causal Inference Pearl J, Glymour M, Jewell NP 2016 Wiley 2016. 156 pages. ISBN: 978-1-119-18684-7 https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Causal+Inference+in+Statistics%3A+A+Primer-p-9781119186847 Textbook DAGs, Causal Inference, Counterfactuals No Show
Causal inference - so much more than statistics: an essay review of Causal Inference in Statistics: A Primer by Judea Pearl, Madelyn Glymour, and Nicholas P. Jewell
Causal Inference Pearce N, Lawlor DA. 2017 Int J Epidemiol. 2016 Dec 1;45(6):1895-1903. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw328 https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/45/6/1895/2999350 Educational DAGs, Causal inference, Collider Bias No Show