Commentary: methodological approaches to understanding mechanisms and 'what if questions in occupational health research

In occupational health research investigators can often be interested in better understanding the factors that explain the relationship between an exposure and an outcome. Two recent examples of such papers published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine are from Shields and colleagues exploring the extent to which differences in employment between people living with and without a disability in Australia explain differences in mental health outcomes,1 and Siegrist and colleagues examining how psychosocial exposures at work interact with socioeconomic position to increase risk of non-fatal cardiovascular disease events.2 The paper by Shields et al1 uses a potential outcomes approach to mediation, based on VanderWeele’s model based approach.3 This analytical approach is increasingly accessible to researchers with many statistical programmes now incorporating specific procedures for such analyses.4 In their paper, Shields and colleagues observe an overall effect (or total effect) of...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research