Public Health Epidemiology Discussion

TOPIC: Assessing Causality and Implications for Public Health Policy

In 1965, Sir Austin Bradford Hill proposed guidelines for assessing causality from epidemiological studies. His intention was not for these guidelines to be used in a rigid manner but rather to be used generally to help in the assessment of disease causation. In recent years, other causal models have been developed, including the Rothman sufficient-component cause model and the web of causation.

To prepare for this Discussion, use the Walden library to find an epidemiological research article published in the last 3 months that uses one of the models of causation discussed in the Learning Resources. Make sure the epidemiological research article you choose clearly uses a model of causal inference that you can discuss. Not all articles do this, so choose carefully! The best options are review articles or articles that clearly address an epidemiological causal inference model in their title and/or abstract.

Respond to the following questions:

1. What is the epidemiological causal inference model used by the authors? How did they apply the model to the association they studied?

2. Do you agree with the author's choice of causal model? Why or why not? Provide evidence to support your assessment.

3. What are the implications for public health policy, given the evidence for causality presented in the article?

Make sure that your discussion focuses on evaluating your article using the entire causal model that the authors used (as opposed to using one or two criteria). Be sure to cite the article you reviewed using proper APA formatting, and include in-text citations and references as appropriate.