Epidemiology: Risk Of Epidemiological Diseases And Cancer - Essay Example

Epidemiology: Risk Of Epidemiological Diseases And Cancer Epidemiological studies have for a long time used the strong statistical association existing between a condition and a suspected risk factor to determine the credibility of the causal nature. The most common criteria employed in such studies are determination of prevalence (incidence) of the condition with regard to the exposed as compared to the unexposed (Boffetta, 2010). A number of studies conducted in the recent years have offered something different with strong suggestions pointing to the idea that weak association may still be an indication of causation.

The first view holds true when considering the case like the one comparing smoking and lung cancer. In this case, the odd ratio and relative risk are in a ration of 20 to40 when consideration the comparison between smokers to non-smokers. However, great caution is needed to avoid taking OR’s and RR’s linked to weak association as an indication of non-causality. This idea holds true, specially, when dealing with conditions that present a common outcome in the area of interest. Cardio vascular disease (CV) serves as an example of a common outcome exhibiting weak association (Ibrahim, & Alexander (n.d.).

In this case, the existing evidence supports the causal nature between smoking and development of CV disease despite the weak. The study of cancer epidemiology is the other proves as it largely depends on identification of small effects and weak associations. Here, Weak associations have been found handy in all aspects of epidemiology, of which genetics and diet are inclusive. Considering the case of diet and cancer, the outcome of early research, mostly the case-control design, indicated the presence of a relatively strong linkage between particular dietary and cancer risk (Gordis, 2008).

However, the last decade analysis of future studies, which show minimal biasness but may incorporate populations with partial exposure contrast, has largely indicated weak (or null) associations.In conclusion, it is not hard to establish the causal nature based on weak association. According to Gordis 2009, this will require one to come up with an extensive study that is well-planned and conducted in addition to having supporting proof from experimental and molecular studies.ReferencesBoffetta, P. (2010). REFERENCES.

National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024843/Gordis, L. (2008). Epidemiology (4th ed.). London: Elsevier Health Sciences.Gordis, L. (2009). Epidemiology (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Elsevier/Saunders.Ibrahim, M., & Alexande, L. (n.d.). ERIC Note Book. ERIC trainingpackages. Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://cphp.sph.unc.edu/trainingpackages/ERIC/eric_notebook_19.pdf