Citation

Greenland S. Am. J. Public Health 1999; 89(8): 1166-1169.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles 90290-3434, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, American Public Health Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10432900

PMCID

PMC1508676

Abstract

Epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and health physicists frequently serve as expert consultants to lawyers, courts, and administrators. One of the most common errors committed by experts is to equate, without qualification, the attributable fraction estimated from epidemiologic data to the probability of causation requested by courts and administrators. This error has become so pervasive that it has been incorporated into judicial precedents and legislation. This commentary provides a brief overview of the error and the context in which it arises.