Investigating causal mechanisms in randomised controlled trials.

Clicks: 234
ID: 40954
2019
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #219 of 436 articles by views in Trials

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 436 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
In some randomised trials, the primary interest is in the mechanisms by which an intervention exerts its effects on health outcomes. That is, clinicians and policy-makers may be interested in how the intervention works (or why it does not work) through hypothesised causal mechanisms. In this article, we highlight the value of understanding causal mechanisms in randomised trials by applying causal mediation analysis to two randomised trials of complex interventions.In the first example, we examine a potential mechanism by which an exercise programme for rheumatoid arthritis of the hand could improve hand function. In the second example, we explore why a rehabilitation programme for ankle fractures failed to improve lower-limb function through hypothesised mechanisms. We outline critical assumptions that are required for making valid causal inferences from these analyses, and provide results of sensitivity analyses that are used to assess the degree to which the estimated causal mediation effects could have been biased by residual confounding.This paper demonstrates how the application of causal mediation analyses to randomised trials can identify the mechanisms by which complex interventions exert their effects. We discuss methodological issues and assumptions that should be considered when mediation analyses of randomised trials are used to inform clinical practice and policy decisions.
Reference Key
lee2019investigatingtrials Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Lee, Hopin;Herbert, Robert D;Lamb, Sarah E;Moseley, Anne M;McAuley, James H;
Journal Trials
Year 2019
DOI
10.1186/s13063-019-3593-z
URL
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.