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> The above sentence shows that the author -- and most readers -- miss the single most important thing about cohort studies -- which is that they can't distingu
by jpmattia 13y ago
> The above sentence shows that the author -- and most readers -- miss the single most important thing about cohort studies -- which is that they can't distinguish causes from effects.
Even that sentence needs work: They can't distinguish between correlations and causes. And having spent too much time with the medical community lately, I'm not sure they're completely straight on the concepts either.
- marcosdumay 13y ago> They can't distinguish between correlations and causes. Now I'm lost. As far as I understand, those studies only find correlations. What am I missing?
- mjt0229 13y agoYou're not missing anything. The people who are taking actions based on the correlations (i.e., treating them as causes) are probably missing something though.
- lutusp 13y ago> Even that sentence needs work: They can't distinguish between correlations and causes. Fair enough, that's correct and important. My original didn't encompass the issue of tertiary causes, i.e. causes not accounted for in the correlation.