Assumptions of IV methods for observational epidemiology

DOI10.1214/09-STS316zbMATH Open1328.62587arXiv1011.0595OpenAlexW2949540592MaRDI QIDQ903300FDOQ903300

Authors: Vanessa Didelez, Sha Meng, Nuala A. Sheehan 

Publication date: 5 January 2016

Published in: Statistical Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Instrumental variable (IV) methods are becoming increasingly popular as they seem to offer the only viable way to overcome the problem of unobserved confounding in observational studies. However, some attention has to be paid to the details, as not all such methods target the same causal parameters and some rely on more restrictive parametric assumptions than others. We therefore discuss and contrast the most common IV approaches with relevance to typical applications in observational epidemiology. Further, we illustrate and compare the asymptotic bias of these IV estimators when underlying assumptions are violated in a numerical study. One of our conclusions is that all IV methods encounter problems in the presence of effect modification by unobserved confounders. Since this can never be ruled out for sure, we recommend that practical applications of IV estimators be accompanied routinely by a sensitivity analysis.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0595

Recommendations

• IV estimation without distributional assumptions
• Instrumental variables and inverse probability weighting for causal inference from longitudinal observational studies
• A flexible instrumental variable approach
• Instrumental variable estimators for binary outcomes
• Think globally, act globally: an epidemiologist's perspective on instrumental variable estimation

zbMATH Keywords

causal inferenceinstrumental variablesstructural mean modelsMendelian randomizationrelative bias

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Point estimation (62F10) Applications of statistics to biology and medical sciences; meta analysis (62P10) Medical epidemiology (92C60)

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Cited In (25)

• A flexible instrumental variable approach
• Think globally, act globally: an epidemiologist's perspective on instrumental variable estimation
• On instrumental variables estimation of causal odds ratios
• Instrumental variables and inverse probability weighting for causal inference from longitudinal observational studies
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• Instrumental variable estimators for binary outcomes

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