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Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Levy, JA; Landerman, LR; Davis, LL
Published in: Nursing research
September 2011

Two recent advances in the statistical methods for testing hypotheses about mediation effects are important for nursing science. First, bootstrap sampling distributions provide more accurate tests of hypotheses about mediated effects. Second, methods for testing statistical hypotheses about subgroup differences in mediation models (moderated mediation) are now well developed.The aims of this study were to demonstrate the use and relatively simple computation of bootstrap sampling distributions in tests of mediation effects and to demonstrate a recently refined method for testing hypotheses about moderated mediation.Using hypothetical data, a step-by-step demonstration was provided of the construction of a bootstrap sampling distribution for a correlation coefficient. Then, tests of mediation and moderated mediation were demonstrated using data from a clinical trial of an intervention for caregivers of patients with Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. In a model hypothesizing that mutuality between caregiver and care recipient mediates the effect of objective on subjective levels of caregiver burden, the bootstrap sampling distribution was calculated of the mediation effect and, from that, two types of 95% confidence intervals for it. Then the hypothesis was tested that the mediating effect of mutuality was stronger for caregivers of patients with Parkinson's disease than for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.Statistical hypothesis testing should never dictate all conclusions. However, the statistical advances in mediation analysis described here will facilitate nursing research as both nurse scientists and methodologists understand their assumptions and logic.

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Published In

Nursing research

DOI

EISSN

1538-9847

ISSN

0029-6562

Publication Date

September 2011

Volume

60

Issue

5

Start / End Page

333 / 339

Related Subject Headings

  • Statistics as Topic
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Nursing Research
  • Nursing
  • Humans
  • Evidence-Based Nursing
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Caregivers
  • 4205 Nursing
  • 4204 Midwifery
 

Citation

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Levy, J. A., Landerman, L. R., & Davis, L. L. (2011). Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research. Nursing Research, 60(5), 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnr.0b013e318227efca
Levy, Janet A., Lawrence R. Landerman, and Linda Lindsey Davis. “Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research.Nursing Research 60, no. 5 (September 2011): 333–39. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnr.0b013e318227efca.
Levy JA, Landerman LR, Davis LL. Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research. Nursing research. 2011 Sep;60(5):333–9.
Levy, Janet A., et al. “Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research.Nursing Research, vol. 60, no. 5, Sept. 2011, pp. 333–39. Epmc, doi:10.1097/nnr.0b013e318227efca.
Levy JA, Landerman LR, Davis LL. Advances in mediation analysis can facilitate nursing research. Nursing research. 2011 Sep;60(5):333–339.

Published In

Nursing research

DOI

EISSN

1538-9847

ISSN

0029-6562

Publication Date

September 2011

Volume

60

Issue

5

Start / End Page

333 / 339

Related Subject Headings

  • Statistics as Topic
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Nursing Research
  • Nursing
  • Humans
  • Evidence-Based Nursing
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Caregivers
  • 4205 Nursing
  • 4204 Midwifery