The application of causal thinking in several issues in estimation of effects
10.3760/cma.j.issn.0254-6450.2019.10.026
- VernacularTitle: 因果思维在效应估计若干问题中的应用
- Author:
Yingjie ZHENG
1
;
Qianying CAI
;
Wei FAN
;
Miao ZHANG
Author Information
1. Department of Epidemiology, Key Laboratory for Health Technology Assessment, National Commission of Health and Family Planning, Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Causal thinking;
Causal inference;
Epidemiology;
Effect estimation;
Study design
- From:
Chinese Journal of Epidemiology
2019;40(10):1314-1323
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Epidemiology is a branch of science that mainly involves in the etiology studies of non-randomness phenomenon among homogenous populations. In this paper, we use causal-thinking, supported by its tool-Directed Acyclic Graphs, to illustrate how the estimation of effects is affected by the issues as relations between effect and association, time sequences between variables and their measured counterparts, natural picture of dynamic population, formation of susceptible population, selection of study population, impact of covariates and types of cases etc., on the estimation of effects. This type of thinking may help us to re-capture the epidemiological theories, methods and related applications. Thus, causal-thinking should be strengthened.
