Evidence map›Paper›PMID 15911649›Full record

ReviewJournal of epidemiology and community health2005

A philosophical analysis of the Hill criteria.

Lau Caspar Thygesen, Gregers Stig Andersen, Hanne Andersen

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Causal Pluralism in Medicine and its Implications for Clinical Practice.Journal for general philosophy of science = Zeitschrift fur allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Causality, mosaics, and the health sciences.Theoretical medicine and bioethics · 2016
    Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. A review of causal inference for biomedical informatics.Journal of biomedical informatics · 2011
    Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. (-)-Epicatechin mediates beneficial effects of flavanol-rich cocoa on vascular function in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2006
    Article
  14. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Lau Caspar ThygesenCentre for Alcohol Research, National Institute of Public Health, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1399 Copenhagen K, Denmark. lct@niph.dk
Gregers Stig Andersen
Hanne Andersen

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The epidemiological literature contains an ongoing and diversified discussion of the Hill criteria. This article offers a philosophical analysis of the criteria, showing that the criteria are related to two different views of causality. The authors argue that the criteria of strength, specificity, consistency, experiment, and biological gradient are related to a probabilistic regularity view of causality, whereas the criteria of coherence, plausibility, and analogy are related to a generative view of causality. The criterion of temporality is not related to either view, but may in contrast be central in inferring direction from cause to effect. The authors illuminate the aim and limitations of the various criteria that need to be included when discussing them.

Indexed as

CausalityEpidemiologic MethodsPhilosophy, MedicalHumans

Identifiers

PMID15911649
PMCPMC1757057

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.