Mediation Analysis: Understanding Causal Pathways to Disease Outcomes
S. Reza Jafarzadeh, DVM, MPVM, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine
Mediation analysis is a science of opening the black box of an intervention-disease relationship mechanism. This lecture discusses recent advances in mediation analysis that are based on modern causal inference methods. It starts with an introduction to the key concepts in mediation analysis and discusses how to assess the importance of the causal mechanisms by which an intervention/exposure affects an outcome. The lecture discusses state-of-the-art techniques for decomposing an intervention effect into natural direct and indirect/mediated effects as well as quantifying interventional direct and indirect effects. No background in mediation analysis or advanced epidemiology is needed.