arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
看起来今天可以划水了
arXiv 2001.05344stat.ME
收藏

非离散暴露下因果空值的非参数检验

Nonparametric tests of the causal null with non-discrete exposures

Ted Westling

摘要:

在许多科学研究中,确定暴露是否对结果产生因果影响是很有意义的。在观察性研究中,这是一项具有挑战性的任务,因为存在影响暴露和结局的混杂变量。已经开发了许多方法来测试当观察到所有这些混杂变量并且当感兴趣的暴露是离散的时是否存在因果效应。在这篇文章中,我们提出了一类非参数检验的原假设,有没有平均因果效应的任意单变量暴露的结果中观察到的混杂。我们的测试适用于离散、连续和混合离散-连续曝光。我们表明,我们提出的测试是双重强大的一致性,他们有正确的渐近第一类错误,如果两个滋扰参数参与的问题估计在足够快的速度,他们有能力检测本地替代品接近零的速度$n^{-1/2}$。我们在数值研究中研究了我们的测试的性能,并使用它们来测试吸烟母亲中吸烟对出生体重的因果影响。

英文摘要:

In many scientific studies, it is of interest to determine whether an exposure has a causal effect on an outcome. In observational studies, this is a challenging task due to the presence of confounding variables that affect both the exposure and the outcome. Many methods have been developed to test for the presence of a causal effect when all such confounding variables are observed and when the exposure of interest is discrete. In this article, we propose a class of nonparametric tests of the null hypothesis that there is no average causal effect of an arbitrary univariate exposure on an outcome in the presence of observed confounding. Our tests apply to discrete, continuous, and mixed discrete-continuous exposures. We demonstrate that our proposed tests are doubly-robust consistent, that they have correct asymptotic type I error if both nuisance parameters involved in the problem are estimated at fast enough rates, and that they have power to detect local alternatives approaching the null at the rate $n^{-1/2}$. We study the performance of our tests in numerical studies, and use them to test for the presence of a causal effect of smoking on birthweight among smoking mothers.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑