Causal Analysis of Air Pollution Mixtures: Estimands, Positivity, and Extrapolation

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Autori principali: Antonelli, Joseph, Zigler, Corwin
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Antonelli, Joseph
Zigler, Corwin
author_facet Antonelli, Joseph
Zigler, Corwin
contents Causal inference for air pollution mixtures is an increasingly important issue with appreciable challenges. When the exposure is a multivariate mixture, there are many exposure contrasts that may be of nominal interest for causal effect estimation, but the complex joint mixture distribution often renders observed data extremely limited in their ability to inform estimates of many commonly-defined causal effects. We use potential outcomes to 1) define causal effects of air pollution mixtures, 2) formalize the key assumption of mixture positivity required for estimation and 3) offer diagnostic metrics for positivity violations in the mixture setting that allow researchers to assess the extent to which data can actually support estimation of mixture effects of interest. For settings where there is limited empirical support, we redefine causal estimands that apportion causal effects according to whether they can be directly informed by observed data versus rely entirely on model extrapolation, isolating key sources of information on the causal effect of an air pollution mixture. The ideas are deployed to assess the ability of a national United States data set on the chemical components of ambient particulate matter air pollution to support estimation of a variety of causal mixture effects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_17385
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Causal Analysis of Air Pollution Mixtures: Estimands, Positivity, and Extrapolation
Antonelli, Joseph
Zigler, Corwin
Methodology
Applications
Causal inference for air pollution mixtures is an increasingly important issue with appreciable challenges. When the exposure is a multivariate mixture, there are many exposure contrasts that may be of nominal interest for causal effect estimation, but the complex joint mixture distribution often renders observed data extremely limited in their ability to inform estimates of many commonly-defined causal effects. We use potential outcomes to 1) define causal effects of air pollution mixtures, 2) formalize the key assumption of mixture positivity required for estimation and 3) offer diagnostic metrics for positivity violations in the mixture setting that allow researchers to assess the extent to which data can actually support estimation of mixture effects of interest. For settings where there is limited empirical support, we redefine causal estimands that apportion causal effects according to whether they can be directly informed by observed data versus rely entirely on model extrapolation, isolating key sources of information on the causal effect of an air pollution mixture. The ideas are deployed to assess the ability of a national United States data set on the chemical components of ambient particulate matter air pollution to support estimation of a variety of causal mixture effects.
title Causal Analysis of Air Pollution Mixtures: Estimands, Positivity, and Extrapolation
topic Methodology
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17385