IDEG Mediation Workshop
Welcome to the IDEG workshop on Mediation Analysis and Directed Acyclic Graphs
During this short workshop, you will be introduced to traditional mediation approaches before exploring the theory of causal mediation, as a method to investigate disease mechanisms in the context of diabetes.
We hope this will be the beginning of your journey in mediation analysis and open the door to more theory-grounded studies in aetiological diabetes epidemiology! The workshop is offered as part of the International Diabetes Epidemiology Group (IDEG) Trainee Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, on 3 April 2025.
The workshop requires some pre-workshop preparation to install R and R Studio as well as some necessary packages and data. Furthermore, for those unfamiliar with Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), some introductory reading and exercises are included in the pre-workshop materials.
The face-to-face workshop will consist of a combination of brief lectures and hands-on coding practice in R code-along sessions. We encourage students to discuss the materials and network during the entire Trainee Workshop. The instructors will be available to answer questions throughout the day.
🗓 April 3, 2025 🏨 Bangkok, Thailand
The target audience
PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working with clinical and epidemiological studies of diabetes, its causes and consequencesits endocrinology, that are planning to conduct mediation analysis or that are interested in widening their analysis toolkit.
⚠️ Prerequisites
To make the most of our workshop in Bangkok, please complete the pre-workshop tasks before you arrive. This will ensure we can start our sessions smoothly and dive right into the content!
- Finish the Pre-Workshop Tasks
- Get familiar with Directed Acyclic Graphs
Schedule
We will combine lectures with code-along sessions, group work, and discussions.
| Time | Content |
|---|---|
| 12.45-12.55 | Introduction to the workshop and the topic (DW) |
| 12.55-13.15 | Traditional mediation analysis (DW) |
| 13.15-13.30 | Causal mediation analysis: introduction (DW) |
| 13.30-13.45 | Causal mediation analysis: estimates (JZ) |
| 13.45-14.00 | Group work + Reflections (JZ) |
Instructors: Daniel Witte (DW), Jie Zhang (JZ)
Building the workshop
The worskhop material was created using Quarto to write the lessons and create the book format, GitHub to host the Git repository of the material, and GitHub Actions with Netlify to create and host the website. The materials for this workshop are adapted from the Mediation Analysis Course. You can find the full materials for that course on the steno-aarhus/mediation-analysis-course GitHub repository.
Re-use and licensing
The workshop is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License so the material can be used, re-used, and modified, as long as there is attribution to this source.
Acknowledgements
This workshop is adapted from the ‘Mediation Analysis Course’ developed by Daniel B. Ibsen, Omar Silverman, Jie Zhang from Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus in Denmark, and Nima Hejarzi and Ivan Diaz from the US, which was sponsored by the Danish Diabetes and Endocrine Academy.