title: Evaluating epidemiological evidence: a simple test.
abstract: Epidemiological studies that investigate the relationships between health behaviors and diseases may be affected by both known and unknown confounding factors. Alcohol use is one of these behaviors that have been intensively investigated in epidemiological studies. This manuscript introduced a simple test that can identify confounded epidemiological studies. This approach is sensitive to both known and unknown confounders. It provides a new perspective to develop measures for evidence selection in the future.
authors.affiliation: National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D004813:Epidemiology / Q000592:standards*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D015438:Health Behavior
keywords: bias; causality; epidemiology; evidence-based medicine; health behaviors
references.citation: Addiction. 2011 Jan;106(1):75-81
references.pmid: 21054616
references.citation: Epidemiology. 1999 Jan;10(1):37-48
references.pmid: 9888278
references.citation: Ann Epidemiol. 2007 May;17(5 Suppl):S16-23
references.pmid: 17478320
references.citation: Obes Res. 2003 Oct;11 Suppl:23S-43S
references.pmid: 14569036
references.citation: Am J Epidemiol. 2008 Oct 15;168(8):866-71
references.pmid: 18701442
references.citation: Lancet. 2006 May 20;367(9523):1665-73
references.pmid: 16714187
references.citation: Lancet. 1988 Dec 3;2(8623):1267-73
references.pmid: 2904004
references.citation: Prev Med. 2004 Aug;39(2):253-62
references.pmid: 15226033