Table 3 Aspects of association to consider prior to the provisional inference of causation as proposed by Sir Austin Bradford Hill (Adapted from [1])
From: The need to reform our assessment of evidence from clinical trials: A commentary
Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
Strength | Correlation or relative measures of effect (i.e. risk ratio) |
Consistency | Across variable studies in design, populations, settings, circumstances, and time |
Specificity | Intervention causes the effect |
Temporality | Intervention precedes effect |
Biologic Gradient | Dose-response curve between intervention and effect |
Plausibility | Based on the current biologic knowledge of mechanisms of disease |
Coherence | In the context of knowledge of natural history and related treatments |
Experiment | Prospective clinical investigations of hypotheses |