Abstract
Instrumental-variable (IV) methods were invented over 70 years ago, but remain uncommon in epidemiology. Over the past decade or so, non-parametric versions of IV methods have appeared that connect IV methods to causal and measurement-error models important in epidemiological applications. This paper provides an introduction to those developments, illustrated by an application of IV methods to non-parametric adjustment for non-compliance in randomized trials.
Keywords
Instrumental variableEpidemiologyCausal inferenceMedicineEconometricsComputer scienceMathematicsPathology
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Identification of Causal Effects Using Instrumental Variables
Abstract We outline a framework for causal inference in settings where assignment to a binary treatment is ignorable, but compliance with the assignment is not perfect so that t...
The many weak instruments problem and Mendelian randomization
Instrumental variable estimates of causal effects can be biased when using many instruments that are only weakly associated with the exposure. We describe several techniques to ...
Mendelian randomization: Using genes as instruments for making causal inferences in epidemiology
Abstract Observational epidemiological studies suffer from many potential biases, from confounding and from reverse causation, and this limits their ability to robustly identify...
Meta‐analysis and<scp>Mendelian</scp>randomization: A review
Mendelian randomization (MR) uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to infer whether a risk factor causally affects a health outcome. Meta‐analysis has been used histor...
Principles of confounder selection
Abstract Selecting an appropriate set of confounders for which to control is critical for reliable causal inference. Recent theoretical and methodological developments have help...
Publication Info
- Year
- 2000
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 722-729
- Citations
- 1147
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
1147
OpenAlex
13
Influential
841
CrossRef
Cite This
Sander Greenland
(2000).
An introduction to instrumental variables for epidemiologists.
International Journal of Epidemiology
, 29
(4)
, 722-729.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/29.4.722
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1093/ije/29.4.722
- PMID
- 11101554