Treatment Effect Heterogeneity and Importance Measures for Multivariate Continuous Treatments

Estimating the joint effect of a multivariate, continuous exposure is crucial, particularly in environmental health where interest lies in simultaneously evaluating the impact of multiple environmental pollutants on health. We develop novel methodology that addresses two key issues for estimation of treatment effects of multivariate, continuous exposures. We use nonparametric Bayesian methodology that is flexible to ensure our approach can capture a wide range of data generating processes. Additionally, we allow the effect of the exposures to be heterogeneous with respect to covariates. Treatment effect heterogeneity has not been well explored in the causal inference literature for multivariate, continuous exposures, and therefore we introduce novel estimands that summarize the nature and extent of the heterogeneity, and propose estimation procedures for new estimands related to treatment effect heterogeneity. We provide theoretical support for the proposed models in the form of posterior contraction rates and show that it works well in simulated examples both with and without heterogeneity. We apply our approach to a study of the health effects of simultaneous exposure to the components of PM₂. ₅ and find that the negative health effects of exposure to these environmental pollutants is exacerbated by low socioeconomic status and age.