tmle: An R package for targeted maximum likelihood estimation

Targeted maximum likelihood estimation (tmle) is a general approach for constructing an efficient double-robust semi-parametric substitution estimator of a causal effect parameter or statistical association measure. tmle is a recently developed r package that implements tmle of the effect of a binary treatment at a single point in time on an outcome of interest,controlling for user supplied covariates,including an additive treatment effect,relative risk,odds ratio,and the controlled direct effect of a binary treatment controlling for a binary intermediate variable on the pathway from treatment to the outcome. estimation of the parameters of a marginal structural model is also available. the package allows outcome data with missingness,and experimental units that contribute repeated records of the point-treatment data structure,thereby allowing the analysis of longitudinal data structures. relevant factors of the likelihood may be modeled or fit data-adaptively according to user specifications,or passed in from an external estimation procedure. effect estimates,variances,p values,and 95% confidence intervals are provided by the software.