Causality and Association Flashcards
0
Q
What is a cause?
A
Exposure or factor that increases the probability of a disease.
1
Q
What is the Henle-Koch postulate?
A
Agent must be necessary for, specific to and sufficient for a disease.
2
Q
What may an association be due to?
A
Unknown confounding factor, common cause, reverse causality or a true cause.
3
Q
What makes a true cause-and-effect more likely? The Bradford Hill criteria.
A
Stronger association, specificity of association, consistency of association, temporal sequence - exposure before outcome, dose response, reversibility (removing potential cause reduces risk), biological plausibility (proposed mechanism), coherence of theory (confirms current scientific consensus), analogy (similar cause at leads to similar outcomes).
