Causal estimands and identification of time-varying effects in non-stationary time series from N-of-1 mobile device data

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cai, Xiaoxuan, Zeng, Li, Fowler, Charlotte, Dixon, Lisa, Ongur, Dost, Baker, Justin T., Onnela, Jukka-Pekka, Valeri, Linda
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Cai, Xiaoxuan
Zeng, Li
Fowler, Charlotte
Dixon, Lisa
Ongur, Dost
Baker, Justin T.
Onnela, Jukka-Pekka
Valeri, Linda
author_facet Cai, Xiaoxuan
Zeng, Li
Fowler, Charlotte
Dixon, Lisa
Ongur, Dost
Baker, Justin T.
Onnela, Jukka-Pekka
Valeri, Linda
contents Mobile technology (mobile phones and wearable devices) generates continuous data streams encompassing outcomes, exposures and covariates, presented as intensive longitudinal or multivariate time series data. The high frequency of measurements enables granular and dynamic evaluation of treatment effect, revealing their persistence and accumulation over time. Existing methods predominantly focus on the contemporaneous effect, temporal-average, or population-average effects, assuming stationarity or invariance of treatment effects over time, which are inadequate both conceptually and statistically to capture dynamic treatment effects in personalized mobile health data. We here propose new causal estimands for multivariate time series in N-of-1 studies. These estimands summarize how time-varying exposures impact outcomes in both short- and long-term. We propose identifiability assumptions and a g-formula estimator that accounts for exposure-outcome and outcome-covariate feedback. The g-formula employs a state space model framework innovatively to accommodate time-varying behavior of treatment effects in non-stationary time series. We apply the proposed method to a multi-year smartphone observational study of bipolar patients and estimate the dynamic effect of phone-based communication on mood of patients with bipolar disorder in an N-of-1 setting. Our approach reveals substantial heterogeneity in treatment effects over time and across individuals. A simulation-based strategy is also proposed for the development of a short-term, dynamic, and personalized treatment recommendation based on patient's past information, in combination with a novel positivity diagnostics plot, validating proper causal inference in time series data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_17666
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Causal estimands and identification of time-varying effects in non-stationary time series from N-of-1 mobile device data
Cai, Xiaoxuan
Zeng, Li
Fowler, Charlotte
Dixon, Lisa
Ongur, Dost
Baker, Justin T.
Onnela, Jukka-Pekka
Valeri, Linda
Methodology
Mobile technology (mobile phones and wearable devices) generates continuous data streams encompassing outcomes, exposures and covariates, presented as intensive longitudinal or multivariate time series data. The high frequency of measurements enables granular and dynamic evaluation of treatment effect, revealing their persistence and accumulation over time. Existing methods predominantly focus on the contemporaneous effect, temporal-average, or population-average effects, assuming stationarity or invariance of treatment effects over time, which are inadequate both conceptually and statistically to capture dynamic treatment effects in personalized mobile health data. We here propose new causal estimands for multivariate time series in N-of-1 studies. These estimands summarize how time-varying exposures impact outcomes in both short- and long-term. We propose identifiability assumptions and a g-formula estimator that accounts for exposure-outcome and outcome-covariate feedback. The g-formula employs a state space model framework innovatively to accommodate time-varying behavior of treatment effects in non-stationary time series. We apply the proposed method to a multi-year smartphone observational study of bipolar patients and estimate the dynamic effect of phone-based communication on mood of patients with bipolar disorder in an N-of-1 setting. Our approach reveals substantial heterogeneity in treatment effects over time and across individuals. A simulation-based strategy is also proposed for the development of a short-term, dynamic, and personalized treatment recommendation based on patient's past information, in combination with a novel positivity diagnostics plot, validating proper causal inference in time series data.
title Causal estimands and identification of time-varying effects in non-stationary time series from N-of-1 mobile device data
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.17666