Epidemiological considerations important for causal inference
| Lilienfeld (1959)6 | Sartwell (1960)7 | Hill (1965)8 | Surgeon General (1964)9 and Susser (1973)10 | MacMahon and Pugh (1970)11 | IARC (1995)12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adapted from Weed 1995.13 | |||||
| Magnitude of effect | Strength of association | Strength of association | Strength/magnitude of association | Strength/magnitude of association | Strength of association |
| Consistency | Replication | Consistency | Consistency | Consistency | Consistency |
| Specificity | Specificity | Specificity | |||
| Temporality | Temporality | Temporality | Temporality | Temporality | |
| Dose response | Dose response | Biological gradient | Dose response | Dose response | Dose response |
| Biological mechanism | Biological plausibility | Biological mechanisms | Mechanisms | ||
| Biological reasonableness | Biological coherence | Biological coherence | Consonance with existing knowledge | ||
| Experimentation evidence | Experimental (intervention) | Experimental (intervention) | Experimental | ||
| Analogy | |||||
| Exclusion of alternative explanations | |||||