Section outline

  • Lecture: DAGS (In-Person Lecture)

    We will review how to draw and use Directed Acyclic Graphs.  This will cover applying the d-separation rule, identifying sufficient and minimally sufficient sets, and DAGs to represent common biases in epidemiology.  We will consider representations of alternative study designs and how these representations help identify potential design problems.  Finally, we will discuss limitations of DAGs and controversies about the usefulness of DAGs.

    Faculty:  Rebecca Graff

    Location:      Mission Hall 1407

    • Session Slides:

    • Lecture - DAGs - To Post File

    • Session Audio/Video Recording (Access restricted to registered students):

    • Required Reading:

      Chapter 12, Rothman, Greenland, & Lash 3rd Edition

      Hernán MA, Zhang SM, Rueda-deCastro AM, Colditz GA, Speizer FE, Ascherio A. Cigarette smoking and the incidence of Parkinson’s disease in two prospective studies. Ann Neurol. 2001 Dec;50(6):780-6. PMID: 11761476.

    • Optional Reading:

      Ch. 6-9 - Hernán MA & Robins JM, Causal Inference book – What if, online text book (Nov. 2019 version)

       "Using Causal Diagrams to Understand Common Problems in Social Epidemiology", M Glymour. chapter 18 in Methods in Social Epidemiology, 2nd edn. (2017) Oakes and Kaufman eds. Wiley (This is an updated and somewhat friendlier version of the chapter in Modern Epi). http://publicifsv.sund.ku.dk/~nk/epiF14/Glymour_DAGs.pdf

       Glymour MM, Weuve J, Berkman LF, Kawachi I, Robins JM. When is baseline adjustment useful in analyses of change? An example with education and cognitive change. American journal of epidemiology. 2005 Aug 1;162(3):267-78. (This is an illustration of a particular problem that could helpfully be represented with DAGs) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15987729

      Hernán MA, Hernández-Díaz S, Robins JM. A structural approach to selection bias. Epidemiology. 2004 Sep 1;15(5):615-25. (This was a very influential paper that reconceptualized how we think about selection bias). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15308962 

      VanderWeele TJ, Hernán MA. Results on differential and dependent measurement error of the exposure and the outcome using signed directed acyclic graphs. American journal of epidemiology. 2012 May 8;175(12):1303-10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22569106

    • Assignment

    • Watch pre-recorded lecture on Interaction/Effect Modification

    • HW 5 DAGs Ques to Post File

    • Assignment Due Date: February 20, 2020 at the beginning of lecture

    • Homework #5 Submission Assignment

    • Assignment Answer Key (access restricted to registered students):

    • HW 5 DAGs Key W2020 to post File