Tyler VanderWeele

Last updated
Tyler J. VanderWeele
VanderWeele.jpg
NationalityAmerican
Education St John's College, Oxford
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
Known for Causal inference
Religion and health
Awards Mortimer Spiegelman Award (2014)
COPSS Presidents' Award (2017)
Scientific career
Fields Epidemiology
Institutions Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Thesis Contributions to the Theory of Causal Directed Acyclic Graphs  (2006)
Doctoral advisor James Robins

Tyler J. VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also the co-director of Harvard University's Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality, the director of their Human Flourishing Program, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics.

Contents

Research

VanderWeele’s research has focused on causal inference in epidemiology, the study of happiness and human flourishing, as well as the relationship between religion and health. [1] [2] [3] He is author of the book Measuring Well-Being , [4] along with an influential approach to conceptualizing and assessing flourishing. [5] [6] He has defined flourishing as a “state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good.” [7] [8] He is project co-director of the Global Flourishing Study, a $43.4 million study in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, Baylor University, Gallup, and the Center for Open Science, with over 200,000 participants in 22 countries from six continents with five waves of annual data collection on the factors that influence human flourishing. [9] VanderWeele also conducts research focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences. [10] His contributions to causal inference include introducing the E-value as a quantitative measure for sensitivity analysis [11] and advances in mediation analysis [12] along with the book, Explanation in Causal Inference, on the topic. [13]

His work on causal inference is grounded in the potential outcomes framework, which is a popular approach, but not embraced by everyone. [14] [15] [16] He is also an author of the book Modern Epidemiology, described as “the standard textbook in all academic institutions for a long time to come… as a reference and encyclopedia.” [17]

VanderWeele has published studies on religious service attendance and its relation to lowering mortality, depression, suicide, divorce, and improving many other outcomes. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]

Awards and honors

VanderWeele is recipient of the Mortimer Spiegelman Award from the American Public Health Association (2014); the John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association (2017); [23] and the Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) (2017) for “fundamental contributions to causal inference and the understanding of causal mechanisms; for profound advancement of epidemiologic theory and methods and the application of statistics throughout medical and social sciences; and for excellent service to the profession including exceptional contributions to teaching, mentoring, and bridging many academic disciplines with statistics.” [24] He was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2014, the American Academy of Catholic Scholars and Artists (2021), [25] the International Society for Science and Religion (2021), and the International Positive Psychology Association (2021). [26] He served as the George Eastman Visiting Professor at Balliol College, University of Oxford, during the 2019-2020 academic year. In 2020, he received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of America for “ongoing efforts to serve vulnerable populations and develop a fuller understanding of the factors that contribute to human flourishing.” [27]

Outreach and public engagement

VanderWeele’s research on well-being and on religion has been covered by the New York Times, [28] USA Today, [29] Washington Post, [30] Chicago Tribune, [31] TIME Magazine, [32] The Economist, [33] CBS, [34] and CNN. [35] He has frequently contributed to Psychology Today on topics concerning human flourishing.

VanderWeele was instrumental in establishing the Flourishing Network, which, through the Human Flourishing Program, serves over 200 community leaders, educators, scholars, business executives, entrepreneurs, and medical professionals in translating research on flourishing into best practices for the promotion of human well-being. [36]

VanderWeele has expressed strong support for academic freedom of expression, [37] and is a member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, the Heterodox Academy, [38] and Harvard’s Council on Academic Freedom.

He is a regular contributor to the Institute for Family Studies. [39] In 2015, VanderWeele was one of 47 scholars who filed an amicus brief in support of respondents and affirmance in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). [40] The amici curiae argued that there is no Constitutional right to same-sex marriage, concluding that, “State decisions reflecting the views of citizens about a matter as fundamental as the definition of marriage… must be left free to reconcile moral claims and interests rather than being compelled to accept the federal courts’ settlement of such delicate considerations.” [41] He has been an advocate for addressing issues of healing and prevention from childhood sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and in other religious and secular organizations. This work has included the organization of an International Symposium on this topic, [42] and efforts to establish a United Nations World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Violence. [43] VanderWeele is a frequent speaker at academic, community, and religious organizations, and has delivered keynote addresses at scientific conferences in the United States, Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Related Research Articles

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Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution, patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.

A case–control study is a type of observational study in which two existing groups differing in outcome are identified and compared on the basis of some supposed causal attribute. Case–control studies are often used to identify factors that may contribute to a medical condition by comparing subjects who have the condition with patients who do not have the condition but are otherwise similar. They require fewer resources but provide less evidence for causal inference than a randomized controlled trial. A case–control study is often used to produce an odds ratio. Some statistical methods make it possible to use a case–control study to also estimate relative risk, risk differences, and other quantities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Bradford Hill</span> English epidemiologist and statistician (1897–1991)

Sir Austin Bradford Hill was an English epidemiologist who pioneered the modern randomised clinical trial and, together with Richard Doll, demonstrated the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Hill is widely known for pioneering the "Bradford Hill" criteria for determining a causal association.

A longitudinal study is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time. It is often a type of observational study, although it can also be structured as longitudinal randomized experiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confounding</span> Variable or factor in causal inference

In causal inference, a confounder is a variable that influences both the dependent variable and independent variable, causing a spurious association. Confounding is a causal concept, and as such, cannot be described in terms of correlations or associations. The existence of confounders is an important quantitative explanation why correlation does not imply causation. Some notations are explicitly designed to identify the existence, possible existence, or non-existence of confounders in causal relationships between elements of a system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendelian randomization</span> Statistical method in genetic epidemiology

In epidemiology, Mendelian randomization is a method using measured variation in genes to examine the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome. Under key assumptions, the design reduces both reverse causation and confounding, which often substantially impede or mislead the interpretation of results from epidemiological studies.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sander Greenland</span> American statistician and epidemiologist

Sander Greenland is an American statistician and epidemiologist with many contributions to statistical and epidemiologic methods including Bayesian and causal inference, bias analysis, and meta-analysis. His focus has been the extensions, limitations, and misuses of statistical methods in nonexperimental studies, especially in postmarketing surveillance of drugs, vaccines, and medical devices. He received honors Bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was Regent's and National Science Foundation Fellow in Mathematics, and then received Master's and Doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was Regent's Fellow in Epidemiology. After serving as an assistant professor of biostatistics at Harvard, he joined the UCLA Epidemiology faculty in 1980 where he became Professor of Epidemiology in the Fielding School of Public Health in 1989, and Professor of Statistics in the UCLA College of Letters and Science in 1999. He moved to Emeritus status in 2012 and the following year he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine by the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Robins</span>

James M. Robins is an epidemiologist and biostatistician best known for advancing methods for drawing causal inferences from complex observational studies and randomized trials, particularly those in which the treatment varies with time. He is the 2013 recipient of the Nathan Mantel Award for lifetime achievement in statistics and epidemiology, and a recipient of the 2022 Rousseeuw Prize in Statistics, jointly with Miguel Hernán, Eric Tchetgen-Tchetgen, Andrea Rotnitzky and Thomas Richardson.

Miquel Porta is a Catalan physician, epidemiologist and scholar. He has promoted the integration of biological, clinical and environmental knowledge and methods in health research and teaching, which he has conducted internationally; notably, in Spain, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard, Imperial College London, and several other universities in Europe, North America, Kuwait, and Brazil. Appointed by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA), in 2008 he succeeded the Canadian epidemiologist John M. Last as Editor of "A Dictionary of Epidemiology". In the Preface to this book he argues for an inclusive and integrative practice of the science of epidemiology. In September 2023, Porta made public through several social networks a call to suggest changes to the new, 7th. edition of the dictionary. The deadline for such contributions is 30 November 2023.

The Bradford Hill criteria, otherwise known as Hill's criteria for causation, are a group of nine principles that can be useful in establishing epidemiologic evidence of a causal relationship between a presumed cause and an observed effect and have been widely used in public health research. They were established in 1965 by the English epidemiologist Sir Austin Bradford Hill.

<i>Handbook of Religion and Health</i> 2001 book

Handbook of Religion and Health is a scholarly book about the relation of spirituality and religion with physical and mental health. Written by Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, the first edition was published in the United States in 2001. Subsequent editions in 2012 and 2023 provide entirely new content as each edition reviews researched published since the previous edition. The book has been discussed in magazines and reviewed in professional journals.

Causal inference is the process of determining the independent, actual effect of a particular phenomenon that is a component of a larger system. The main difference between causal inference and inference of association is that causal inference analyzes the response of an effect variable when a cause of the effect variable is changed. The study of why things occur is called etiology, and can be described using the language of scientific causal notation. Causal inference is said to provide the evidence of causality theorized by causal reasoning.

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Sensitivity analysis studies the relation between the uncertainty in a model-based the inference and the uncertainties in the model assumptions. Sensitivity analysis can play an important role in epidemiology, for example in assessing the influence of the unmeasured confounding on the causal conclusions of a study. It is also important in all mathematical modelling studies of epidemics.

In the field of epidemiology, the causal mechanisms responsible for diseases can be understood using the causal pie model.This conceptual model was introduced by Ken Rothman to communicate how constellations of component causes can lead to a sufficient cause to lead to a condition of interest and that reflection on these sets could improve epidemiological study design. A set of proposed causal mechanisms are represented as pie charts where each pie in the diagram represent a theoretical causal mechanism for a given disease, which is also called a sufficient cause. Each pie is made up of many component factors, otherwise known as component causes represented by sectors in the diagram. In this framework, each component cause represents an event or condition required for a given disease or outcome. A component cause that appears in every pie is called a necessary cause as the outcome cannot occur without it.

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References

  1. ↑ "Tyler VanderWeele". Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health . Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  2. ↑ Ducharme, Jamie (2018-02-15). "You Asked: Do Religious People Live Longer?". Time . Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  3. ↑ Storrs, Carina (2016-05-16). "Going to church could help you live longer". CNN . Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  4. ↑ Lee, M. T.; Kubzansky, L.D.; VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Measuring Well-being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780197512531.
  5. ↑ Vanderweele, Tyler J. (2017). "On the promotion of human flourishing". PNAS . 114 (31): 8148–8156. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.8148V. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702996114 . PMC   5547610 . PMID   28705870.
  6. ↑ Wȩziak-Białowolska, Dorota; McNeely, Eileen; Vanderweele, Tyler J. (2019). "Human Flourishing in Cross Cultural Settings. Evidence From the United States, China, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Mexico". Frontiers in Psychology. 10: 1269. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01269 . PMC   6549439 . PMID   31191421.
  7. ↑ Vanderweele, Tyler J. (2017). "On the promotion of human flourishing". PNAS . 114 (31): 8148–8156. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.8148V. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702996114 . PMC   5547610 . PMID   28705870.
  8. ↑ Vanderweele, Tyler J.; Lomas, Tim (2022). "Terminology and the Well-being Literature". Affective Science . 4 (1): 36–40. doi:10.1007/s42761-022-00153-2. PMC   10104989 . PMID   37070016. S2CID   252869042.
  9. ↑ "Baylor And Harvard Team Up For Massive Global Study Of Human Flourishing". Forbes . Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  10. ↑ "Academic Profile: Tyler J. VanderWeele". Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 5 January 2021. Archived from the original on March 17, 2023. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  11. ↑ VanderWeele, Tyler J.; Ding, Peng (2017-08-15). "Sensitivity Analysis in Observational Research: Introducing the E-Value". Annals of Internal Medicine. 167 (4): 268–274. doi:10.7326/M16-2607. ISSN   0003-4819. PMID   28693043. S2CID   207538791.
  12. ↑ Tai, An-Shun; Lin, Sheng-Hsuan; Chu, Yu-Cheng; Yu, Tsung; Puhan, Milo A.; VanderWeele, Tyler (2023). "Causal Mediation Analysis with Multiple Time-varying Mediators". Epidemiology . 34 (1): 8–19. doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000001555. ISSN   1044-3983. PMID   36455244. S2CID   246862899.
  13. ↑ VanderWeele, Tyler J. (2015). Explanation in Causal Inference: Methods for Mediation and Interaction. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199325870.
  14. ↑ Vandenbroucke, JP; Broadbent, A; Pearce, N (2016). "Causality and causal inference in epidemiology: the need for a pluralistic approach". International Journal of Epidemiology. 45 (6): 1776–1786. doi:10.1093/ije/dyv341. PMC   5841832 . PMID   26800751.
  15. ↑ Krieger, N; Davey Smith, G (2016). "The tale wagged by the DAG: broadening the scope of causal inference and explanation for epidemiology". International Journal of Epidemiology. 45 (6): 1787–1808. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw114 . PMID   27694566.
  16. ↑ VanderWeele, TJ (2017). "Commentary: On Causes, Causal Inference, and Potential Outcomes". International Journal of Epidemiology. 45 (6): 1809–1816. doi:10.1093/ije/dyw230. PMC   5841618 . PMID   28130319.
  17. ↑ Ahlbom, A (2021). "Modern Epidemiology, 4th edition. TL Lash, TJ VanderWeele, S Haneuse, KJ Rothman. Wolters Kluwer". European Journal of Epidemiology. 36 (8): 767–768. doi:10.1007/s10654-021-00778-w. PMC   8416883 . PMID   34216355. S2CID   235723748.
  18. ↑ Li, S; Stampfer, MJ; Williams, DR; VanderWeele, TJ (2016). "Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women". JAMA Internal Medicine. 176 (6): 777–785. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1615. PMC   5503841 . PMID   27183175.
  19. ↑ Li, S; Okereke, O; Kawachi, I; VanderWeele, TJ (2016). "Religious Service Attendance and Lower Depression Among Women: a Prospective Cohort Study". Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 50 (6): 876–884. doi:10.1007/s12160-016-9813-9. PMC   5127763 . PMID   27393076. S2CID   3697758.
  20. ↑ VanderWeele, TJ; Li, S; Tsai, AC; Kawachi, I (2016). "Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Lower Suicide Rates Among US Women". JAMA Network. 73 (8): 845–851.
  21. ↑ Li, S; Kubzansky, LD; VanderWeele, TJ (2018). "Religious service attendance, divorce, and remarriage among U.S. nurses in mid and late life". PLOS ONE. 13 (12): e0207778. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1307778L. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207778 . PMC   6277070 . PMID   30507933.
  22. ↑ Chen, Y; Kim, ES; VanderWeele, TJ (2020). "Religious-service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood: evidence from three prospective cohorts". International Journal of Epidemiology. 49 (6): 2030–2040. doi:10.1093/ije/dyaa120. PMC   7825951 . PMID   32793951.
  23. ↑ "APHA Awards Ceremony and Wade Hampton Frost Lecture" (PDF).
  24. ↑ "Presidents' Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies".
  25. ↑ "American Academy of Catholic Scholars and Artists".
  26. ↑ "IPPA Fellows 2021".
  27. ↑ "University Honors Four for Dedicated Service, Distinguished Contributions, and Dazzling Achievements".
  28. ↑ "Are You Flourishing? Take the Quiz". The New York Times . 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  29. ↑ "Religion's health effects should make doubting parishioners reconsider leaving". USA Today . 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  30. ↑ "Another possible benefit of going to church: A 33 percent chance of living longer". Washington Post . 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  31. ↑ "Going to church may be good for longevity". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  32. ↑ "You Asked: Do Religious People Live Longer?". Time Magazine . 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  33. ↑ "A tale of mistake and retraction shows that science works—eventually". Time Magazine . 2019-10-31. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  34. ↑ "Could religion help you live longer?". CBS . 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  35. ↑ "Going to church could help you live longer, study says". CNN . 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  36. ↑ "Flourishing Network". Flourishing Network . Retrieved 2023-02-20.
  37. ↑ Friedersdorf, Conor (2017-08-29). "Ivy League Scholars Urge Students: 'Think for Yourself'". The Atlantic . Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  38. ↑ "Academic Freedom Alliance". Academic Freedom Alliance . Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  39. ↑ "IFS". Institute of Family Studies . Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  40. ↑ "Obergefell v. Hodges". SCOTUSblog. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  41. ↑ Brief of amici curiae: 47 scholars in support of respondents and affirmance in OBERGEFELL vs. HODGES. p 5.
  42. ↑ "Preventing and Healing Child Abuse in Religious Communities". Psychology Today . Retrieved 2023-02-20.
  43. ↑ "UN names World Day for prevention of child sexual abuse, exploitation". Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health . 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
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