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Advances in synthetic control methods bring new opportunities to conduct rigorous research in evaluating public health interventions. However, incorporating synthetic controls in interrupted time series studies may not always nullify important threats to validity nor improve causal inference. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2010/5917161
Concerns have been expressed over standards of statistical interpretation. Results with P <0.05 are often referred to as ‘significant’ which, in plain English, implies important. This leads some people directly into the misconception that this provides proof that associations are clinically relevant. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2083/5876177
Standard errors are usually calculated based on assumptions underpinning the statistical model used in the estimation. However, there are situations in which some assumptions of the statistical model including the variance or covariance of the outcome across observations are violated, which leads to biased standard errors. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/50/1/346/6044447
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/reflection-modern-methods-demystifying-robust-standard-errors-epidemiologists - 2025-10-31
The IDAG allows for a both intuitive and stringent way of illustrating interactions. It helps to distinguish between causal and non-causal mechanisms behind effect variation. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/50/2/613/5998421
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/directed-acyclic-graph-interactions - 2025-10-31
Directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) are an increasingly popular approach for identifying confounding variables that require conditioning when estimating causal effects. This review examined the use of DAGs in applied health research to inform recommendations for improving their transparency and utility in future research. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/50/2/620/6012812
Statistical learning methods beyond generalized linear models, such as shrinkage methods or kernel smoothing methods, are being increasingly implemented in public health research and epidemiology because they can perform better in instances with complex or high-dimensional data—settings in which traditional statistical methods fail. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/50/2/685/6
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/reflection-modern-methods-good-practices-applied-statistical-learning-epidemiology - 2025-10-31
The ambition is to provide one of the first large-scale European family studies with individual data across three generations, which could deepen our knowledge about the role of family traits for chronic disease and its underlying mechanisms. Read the paper at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-020-00695-4
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/malmo-offspring-study-mos-design-methods-and-first-results - 2025-10-31
The network will add value to participating cohorts by increasing statistical power and exposure heterogeneity, as well as facilitating cross-cohort comparisons, cross-validation and replication. Our aim is to motivate other cohorts to join the network and encourage the use of the EU Child Cohort Network by the wider research community. Read the paper at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2
Nytt stöd för mer inkluderande forskningsfinansiering Den 27 april lanserade forskningsfinansiärerna Formas, Forte, Vinnova och Energimyndigheten ett nytt, webbaserat processtöd för att nå ut bättre till sökande från en mångfald av discipliner och sektorer och även för att stärka samverkan mellan forskning och det omgivande samhället.Pressmeddelandet finns här och själva sidan på humsamverkan.se.
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/humsamverkan - 2025-10-31
Health workers invest major time recording register data for maternal and newborn core health indicators. Improving data quality requires standardised register designs streamlined to capture only necessary data elements. Consistent implementation processes are also needed. Read the paper at https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1288…
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/barriers-and-enablers-routine-register-data-collection-newborns-and-mothers - 2025-10-31
Mediation analysis seeks to explain the pathway(s) through which an exposure affects an outcome. Traditional, non-instrumental variable methods for mediation analysis experience a number of methodological difficulties, including bias due to confounding between an exposure, mediator and outcome and measurement error. Mendelian randomisation (MR) can be used to improve causal inference for mediation
We describe a novel Bayesian pathway analysis approach, the algorithm for learning pathway structure (ALPS), which addresses key limitations in existing approaches to complex data analysis. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/189/12/1610/5868707
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/bayesian-pathway-analysis-complex-interactions - 2025-10-31
The method extends an established case–control sampling principle: sample the at-risk experience of a cohort study such that the sampled exposure distribution approximates that of the cohort. It is distinct from density sampling in that the sample remains in the form of the at-risk measure, which may be continuous, such as person–time or person–distance. Read the paper at https://journals.lww.com/
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/risk-measure-sampling-case-control-studies-aggregated-data - 2025-10-31
We recommend careful consideration of 1) the reasons for missingness, 2) whether missingness modifies the existing relationships among observed data, and 3) the scientific context and data source, to inform the choice of the appropriate method(s) for handling partially observed confounders in MSMs. Read the paper at https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/190/4/663/5923802
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/common-methods-handling-missing-data-marginal-structural-models-what-works-and-why - 2025-10-31
As a new tool, we present do-search, a recently developed algorithmic approach that can determine the identifiability of a causal effect. The approach is based on do-calculus, and it can utilize data with nontrivial missing data and selection bias mechanisms. Read the paper at https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2021/01000/Do_search__A_Tool_f…
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/do-search-tool-causal-inference-and-study-design-multiple-data-sources - 2025-10-31
This systematic review demonstrates that regression discontinuity designs have been widely applied in health research and could be used more widely still. Shortcomings in study quality and reporting suggest that the potential benefits of this method have not yet been fully realized. Read the paper at https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2021/01000/Regression_Disconti…
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/regression-discontinuity-designs-health - 2025-10-31
Lack of representativeness may distort the associations of alcohol with CVD mortality, and may underestimate health hazards among those with cumulatively the least healthy lifestyles. Read the paper at https://journals.lww.com/epidem/Fulltext/2021/03000/Is_Cohort_Represent…
Advice regarding the analysis of observational studies of exposure effects usually is against adjustment for factors that occur after the exposure, as they may be caused by the exposure (or mediate the effect of exposure on outcome), so potentially leading to collider stratification bias. However, such factors could also be caused by unmeasured confounding factors, in which case adjusting for them
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/adjust-or-not-adjust-when-confounder-only-measured-after-exposure - 2025-10-31
Mediation analysis, which started in the mid-1980s, is used extensively by applied researchers. Indirect and direct effects are the part of a treatment effect that is mediated by a covariate and the part that is not. Subsequent work on natural indirect and direct effects provides a formal causal interpretation, based on cross-worlds counterfactuals: outcomes under treatment with the mediator set t
Patient registries are an established methodology in health services research. Since more than 150 years, registries collect information concerning groups of similar patients to answer research questions. Elaborated recommendations about an appropriate development and an efficient operation of registries are available. However, the scene changes rapidly. Read the paper at https://www.thieme-connec
https://www.lupop.lu.se/article/recent-trends-patient-registries-health-services-research - 2025-10-31
