Citation

Smith GD, Phillips AN, Neaton JD. Lancet 1992; 340(8821): 709-712.

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, University of Glasgow, UK.

Comment In:

Lancet 1992;340(8827):1096

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1355809

Abstract

Two widely used criteria for determining whether an association between a risk factor and a disease is causal are dose response and independence from other factors. Data from a large US risk factor study (MRFIT) throw up a relation between cigarette smoking and suicide that meets these criteria, yet appears to be biologically implausible. It is likely that many more such associations, for other exposures and other diseases, are equally spurious, but are protected by their lack of obvious implausibility.

Language: en