在隐私保护下实现异构数据的因果发现,解决隐藏混杂问题。
Federated Causal Discovery Across Heterogeneous Datasets under Latent Confounding
- 基于联邦IRLS算法,统一处理多类变量和站点差异。
- 联邦集成法提升统计效能,逼近集中式分析效果。
- 适合医疗、金融等隐私敏感领域的跨机构研究。
跨数据集的因果发现常受数据隐私法规和跨站点异质性限制,传统方法需集中化数据。为此,我们提出fedCI,一种联邦条件独立性检验方法,可严格处理变量集合不一致、站点特异性效应及连续、序数、二值、分类等混合变量类型。其核心为基于联邦迭代加权最小二乘(IRLS)的广义线性模型参数估计,用于似然比检验。在此基础上,我们开发了fedCI-IOD,首次实现分布式异构数据在隐藏混杂下的联邦因果发现,替代原有元分析策略。通过联邦聚合证据,fedCI-IOD既保障隐私,又显著提升统计功效,性能接近全池化分析,有效缓解局部样本量过小带来的偏差。相关工具已开源:fedCI Python包、隐私保护版IOD R实现及fedCI-IOD流程网页应用,提供灵活易用的联邦条件独立性测试与因果发现解决方案。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Causal discovery across multiple datasets is often constrained by data privacy regulations and cross-site heterogeneity, limiting the use of conventional methods that require a single, centralized dataset. To address these challenges, we introduce fedCI, a federated conditional independence test that rigorously handles heterogeneous datasets with non-identical sets of variables, site-specific effects, and mixed variable types, including continuous, ordinal, binary, and categorical variables. At its core, fedCI uses a federated Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares (IRLS) procedure to estimate the parameters of generalized linear models underlying likelihood-ratio tests for conditional independence. Building on this, we develop fedCI-IOD, a federated extension of the Integration of Overlapping Datasets (IOD) algorithm, that replaces its meta-analysis strategy and enables, for the fist time, federated causal discovery under latent confounding across distributed and heterogeneous datasets. By aggregating evidence federatively, fedCI-IOD not only preserves privacy but also substantially enhances statistical power, achieving performance comparable to fully pooled analyses and mitigating artifacts from low local sample sizes. Our tools are publicly available as the fedCI Python package, a privacy-preserving R implementation of IOD, and a web application for the fedCI-IOD pipeline, providing versatile, user-friendly solutions for federated conditional independence testing and causal discovery.
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