Radiation biology. Radioecology
ISSN: 0869-8031

Archives → 2022 → Vol. 62, № 5 → pp. 453-476

Article

Causal Criteria in Medical and Biological Disciplines: History, Essence and Radiation Aspect. Report 4, Part 3: Breadth of the Use of Criteria in Different Disciplines and Different Organizations

Koterov A.N.

A.I. Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center of Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

Part 3 of Report 4 is the final publication within a cycle of reviews (12 in total) on methods of establishing causality in observational disciplines, on Hill’s and other authors' or organizations' causality criteria, about the history of the formation of criteria, their application in various disciplines, including radiation, about its limitations and criticism. The presented article examines the breadth of the use of the method for assessing the effect causality based on causal criteria (‘Hill's criteria’). It was found that the application of this approach, originally developed for epidemiology, is not limited to the framework of only natural sciences: Hill’s criteria are also used in socio-logy and economics, in jurisprudence and forensic science, in psychiatry, climatology, psychology, etc. Many epidemiologies (15 types) provide for the mandatory application of causal criteria, in most cases called the ‘Hill criteria’. It was also revealed the widespread inclusion of Hill’s criteria in assessing the effect causality by various international and internationally respected organizations: WHO, IARC, UNSCEAR, BEIR, NCRP, USEPA (U.S. EPA), etc. The significant contribution of Hill’s criteria to most of the well-known modern methodologies for assessing the ‘Weight of Evidence’ (WoE) in epidemiology and evidence-based medicine is shown, as well as the overlap of this approach with other, more recent methodologies for determining causality: K.J. Rothman sufficient component causal model (SSC model), acyclic causal graph model (DAG model) and other methods. Examples of consideration/use of Hill’s criteria in the radiation disciplines, including radiation epidemiology, radiation hygiene and radiation safety, are presented. The conclusion is made about the enduring actuality of the methodology based on the causal criteria inclu-ding for assessing the radiation dependence of medico-biological effects.

Keywords

Сausal criteria, criteria of A.B. Hill, Epidemiologies, Weight of Evidence, WHO, IARC, UNSCEAR, BEIR, NCRP