ArticleAmerican journal of epidemiology2013
Hume, Mill, Hill, and the sui generis epidemiologic approach to causal inference.
Article in American journal of epidemiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Asymmetric U-shaped association between first-trimester maternal free thyroxine levels and the risk of preeclampsia: a large-scale cohort study.Journal of hypertension · 2026Article
- Unraveling Causality: Innovations in Epidemiologic Methods.JMA journal · 2025Article
- Neonatal sepsis as a cause of retinopathy of prematurity: An etiological explanation.Progress in retinal and eye research · 2024Review
- Causal Criteria in Medical and Biological Disciplines: History, Essence, and Radiation Aspects. Report 4, Part 1: The Post-Hill Criteria and Ecolgoical Criteria.Biology bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences · 2022Article
- Strength in causality: discerning causal mechanisms in the sufficient cause model.European journal of epidemiology · 2021Article
- Associations of Hypothyroxinemia With Risk of Preeclampsia-Eclampsia and Gestational Hypertension.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- The Confounding Question of Confounding Causes in Randomized Trials.The British journal for the philosophy of science · 2019Article
- Article
- Association Between Helicobacter pylori Infection and Risk of Periodontal Diseases in Han Chinese: A Case-Control Study.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
The epidemiologic approach to causal inference (i.e., Hill's viewpoints) consists of evaluating potential causes from the following 2, noncumulative angles: 1) established results from comparative, observational, or experimental epidemiologic studies; and 2) reviews of nonepidemiologic evidence. It does not involve statements of statistical significance. The philosophical roots of Hill's viewpoints are unknown. Superficially, they seem to descend from the ideas of Hume and Mill. Hill's viewpoints, however, use a different kind of evidence and have different purposes than do Hume's rules or Mill's system of logic. In a nutshell, Hume ignores comparative evidence central to Hill's viewpoints. Mill's logic disqualifies as invalid nonexperimental evidence, which forms the bulk of epidemiologic findings reviewed from Hill's viewpoints. The approaches by Hume and Mill cannot corroborate successful implementations of Hill's viewpoints. Besides Hume and Mill, the epidemiologic literature is clueless about a plausible, pre-1965 philosophical origin of Hill's viewpoints. Thus, Hill's viewpoints may be philosophically novel, sui generis, still waiting to be validated and justified.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.