English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The incorporation of causal inference in mediation analysis has led totheoretical and methodological advancements -- effect definitions with causalinterpretation, clarification of assumptions required for effectidentification, and an expanding array of options for effect estimation.However, the literature on these results is fast-growing and complex, which maybe confusing to researchers unfamiliar with causal inference or unfamiliar withmediation. The goal of this paper is to help ease the understanding andadoption of causal mediation analysis. It starts by highlighting a keydifference between the causal inference and traditional approaches to mediationanalysis and making a case for the need for explicit causal thinking and thecausal inference approach in mediation analysis. It then explains inas-plain-as-possible language existing effect types, paying special attentionto motivating these effects with different types of research questions, andusing concrete examples for illustration. This presentation differentiates twoperspectives (or purposes of analysis): the explanatory perspective (aiming toexplain the total effect) and the interventional perspective (asking questionsabout hypothetical interventions on the exposure and mediator, orhypothetically modified exposures). For the latter perspective, the paperproposes tapping into a general class of interventional effects that containsas special cases most of the usual effect types -- interventional direct andindirect effects, controlled direct effects and also a generalizedinterventional direct effect type, as well as the total effect and overalleffect. This general class allows flexible effect definitions which bettermatch many research questions than the standard interventional direct andindirect effects.

Clarifying causal mediation analysis for the applied researcher: Defining effects based on what we want to learn