Sibling comparison designs to assess social exposures and empirical tools to guide interpretation: an illustrative study of childhood income and subsequent mental disorders
In this example, estimates from the sibling comparison design may reflect limited exposure variability within families and unmet life course model assumptions, rather than or in addition to the removal of shared familial confounding. The empirical approaches we developed help researchers distinguish methodologic factors from genuine null findings, and are available with R code for implementation.
Authors
- John Joseph McGrath (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4792-6068)
- Christian Hakulinen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8629-9960)
- Carsten Bøcker Pedersen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2077-8533)
- Nanna Weye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4754-4913)
- Tomáš Formánek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6740-6860)
- Linda Ejlskov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4917-9200)
- Oleguer Plana‐Ripoll (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6470-7465)
- Buket Öztürk Esen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2957-7797)
Institutions
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Park Centre for Mental Health (AU)
- Aarhus University Hospital (DK)
- Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FI)
- Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (AU)
- Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ES)
- National Institute of Mental Health (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Epidemiology
- Published
- 2025-12-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001937
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Causal Inference Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00