Hi,
Does anyone know what statistical methods would be appropriate for
examining the effects of structural determinants, through a mediator, on
health outcomes?  All of these would be different units of analysis. For
example, a political/structural variable at the state level --> state
budget --> health outcomes in actual people in that state.  And how do
researchers deal with the time lag issue, that is, how to decide when to
measure health outcomes in relation to the upstream structural variables,
and the issue of people moving in and out of states or other geographical
units?  We just finished a study using state-and year fixed-effects models,
and I want to follow it up with a mediational model.

I feel like this is a crucial question for examining social/political
determinants of health & health inequities, but I have no idea what kind of
analysis would be appropriate. A lot of the studies I have looked at so far
are more in the form of predictor --> outcome & not in the form of
predictor --> mediator --> outcome. Or they follow individual people in
longitudinal studies, but then the focus is on the people as they move
through time and space, not as much on the political/structural
determinants in a specific jurisdiction.

I'm wading into areas that are far, far away from what I was trained in
decades ago, so I'd appreciate any help or any examples of studies
that have tried to tackle this question.
Thanks,
Canan
--
Canan Karatekin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor | Institute of Child Development, 206C | icd.umn.edu
University of Minnesota | umn.edu
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/icd/research/KaratekinLab
<http://www.cehd.umn.edu/icd/research/KaratekinLab>| 612-626-9891
<http://www.cehd.umn.edu/icd/research/KaratekinLab>

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