title: [Determinants of health and health policies. Part I. Causality in medicine and its modeling].
abstract: Causality is the relation between the antecedent and consequence. Association between those two notions represents causal determinacy allowing understanding the subject, and the theory of probability, which deals with supposed contradiction of the chance and necessity. Understanding how health can be impaired enables to precede the disease, to change its natural history and to cure it. Causality in medicine is based on the conception of complex action of biological, psychological and social factors, which may have either positive or negative effects on our health. Empirical data forming basis for the search of aetiology represent a conglomerate of causal and indifferent elements. To identify them, various models are employed (black box, Rubik's cube, Chinese box, model of multiple accidental phenomena and others). Appropriate epidemiological methods enable not only to determine the preference, but also to signalize fallacies of looking for the origin of disease. Permanent problem of the medicine reveals the existence of the objective accident and the uncertainty in the professional decision.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zácek
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D015981:Epidemiologic Factors; D006291:Health Policy; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical