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Disease proportions attributable to environment

Population disease proportions attributable to various causal agents are popular as they present a simplified view of the contribution of each agent to the disease load. However they are only summary figures that may be easily misinterpreted or over-interpreted even when the causal link between an e...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Saracci, Rodolfo, Vineis, Paolo
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2169214/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18045465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-6-38
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author Saracci, Rodolfo
Vineis, Paolo
author_facet Saracci, Rodolfo
Vineis, Paolo
author_sort Saracci, Rodolfo
collection PubMed
description Population disease proportions attributable to various causal agents are popular as they present a simplified view of the contribution of each agent to the disease load. However they are only summary figures that may be easily misinterpreted or over-interpreted even when the causal link between an exposure and an effect is well established. This commentary discusses several issues surrounding the estimation of attributable proportions, particularly with reference to environmental causes of cancers, and critically examines two recently published papers. These issues encompass potential biases as well as the very definition of environment and of environmental agent. The latter aspect is not just a semantic question but carries implications for the focus of preventive actions, whether centred on the material and social environment or on single individuals.
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spelling pubmed-21692142007-12-29 Disease proportions attributable to environment Saracci, Rodolfo Vineis, Paolo Environ Health Commentary Population disease proportions attributable to various causal agents are popular as they present a simplified view of the contribution of each agent to the disease load. However they are only summary figures that may be easily misinterpreted or over-interpreted even when the causal link between an exposure and an effect is well established. This commentary discusses several issues surrounding the estimation of attributable proportions, particularly with reference to environmental causes of cancers, and critically examines two recently published papers. These issues encompass potential biases as well as the very definition of environment and of environmental agent. The latter aspect is not just a semantic question but carries implications for the focus of preventive actions, whether centred on the material and social environment or on single individuals. BioMed Central 2007-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC2169214/ /pubmed/18045465 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-6-38 Text en Copyright © 2007 Saracci and Vineis; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Commentary
Saracci, Rodolfo
Vineis, Paolo
Disease proportions attributable to environment
title Disease proportions attributable to environment
title_full Disease proportions attributable to environment
title_fullStr Disease proportions attributable to environment
title_full_unstemmed Disease proportions attributable to environment
title_short Disease proportions attributable to environment
title_sort disease proportions attributable to environment
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2169214/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18045465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-6-38
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