Letter/Communication
Sibling Comparisons to Account for Confounding - Reply
JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 42054049
29 Apr 2026
PMID: 42054049
Abstract
In Reply We thank Dr Hswen for her thoughtful engagement with our recent JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods on sibling comparisons in observational studies.1 In that guide, we outlined the principles underlying this design, along with its key assumptions and potential threats to validity. Sibling comparisons leverage the fact that family members often share genetic and environmental factors that may confound associations in conventional observational analyses. By comparing exposed and unexposed siblings within families, the design can address confounding due to shared, often unmeasured, confounders. However, as with any other observational method, it rests on strong assumptions.
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Details
- Title
- Sibling Comparisons to Account for Confounding - Reply
- Creators
- Viktor H. Ahlqvist - Karolinska InstitutetBrian K. Lee - Drexel University, Epidemiology and BiostatisticsYu-Han Chiu - Brown University
- Publication Details
- JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 42054049
- Publisher
- Amer Medical Assoc
- Number of pages
- 1
- Grant note
- PG-24-0427 / Swedish Society for Medical Research grant R35GM154888 / NIH; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA
- Resource Type
- Letter/Communication
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001754836400001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105038127629
- Other Identifier
- 991022182272804721