title: A framework for causal inference in occupational epidemiology.
abstract: The observational nature of occupational epidemiology research is a reason for potentially divergent interpretation of the causal nature of the results of studies addressing the association between an exposure and a disease. There is a need for frameworks that explicitly define the steps involved in this process of deriving causal inference from occupational epidemiology. A recent proposal consisted of the following steps: (i) study identification, (ii) quality assessment and categorization, (iii) evaluation of the weight of the evidence, and (iv) assignment of a scalable conclusion. While other approaches can be proposed, efforts to improve the quality and transparency of the process are helpful and represent a contribution to this essential component of occupational epidemiology research.
authors.affiliation: The Tisch Cancer Institute and Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10028, USA.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boffetta
mesh_terms: D015984:Causality; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*