HSS 4303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Bundesautobahn 44, Life Table, Benzene
9 Nov 2016
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Looks forward in time beginning with ascertainment of exposure. Look back in time to see ascertainment of disease status. The (cid:271)est (cid:449)a(cid:455) to as(cid:272)ertai(cid:374) (cid:272)ausalit(cid:455) is through rcts. It would not be ethical to force people to smoke. Hill"s criteria for causation: made by sir austin bradford hill to show causality without an rct (used a lot in court cases) Temporality cause precedes effect (would not be seen in a cross sectional study) Biological gradient dose response (would smoking 2 packs vs 1 pack a week raise chance of getting cancer) Plausibility makes sense biologically (falls within our understanding of science) Analogy one virus resembles another virus and they cause similar effects so they probably work in similar ways. Smoking causes a lot of stuff, but lung cancer is most common. Lung cancer is caused by a lot of stuff but smoking is most common.
