Establishing a causal link between social relationships and health using the Bradford Hill Guidelines
Establishing a causal link between social relationships and health using the Bradford Hill Guidelines
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100402
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发表时间：
2019-08-01
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Kelly, Mike
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Howick, Jeremy;Kelly, Paul;Kelly, Mike
大量证据表明，我们社会关系的规模和质量改善了人类的身心健康，同时延长了寿命。然而，这些证据大多来自观察，而不是实验（随机试验）证据，这使得社会关系和健康之间的联系可能是关联的，而不是因果关系。然而，也有一些例子，包括吸烟和肺癌之间的联系，在没有实验证据的情况下就确定了原因。这有时是通过使用“Bradford Hill指南”查看证据的整体来实现的，该指南考虑了包括关联强度、可逆性和合理机制证据在内的因素。在本文中，我们将布拉德福德希尔准则应用于社会关系与健康之间的联系。我们得出的结论是，拥有强大和支持性的社会关系可以带来更好的健康和更长的寿命。除了确定社会关系是健康的一个因果因素之外，我们在这里使用的方法可以应用于随机试验不道德或不可行的其他领域。
An abundance of evidence suggests that the size and quality of our social relationships improves humans' physical and mental health while increasing lifespan. However most of this evidence comes from observational rather than experimental (randomised trial) evidence, leaving open the possibility that the connection between social relationships and health could be associational rather than causal. However there are examples, including the link between smoking and lung cancer, where a cause was established without experimental evidence. This was sometimes achieved by looking at the totality of evidence, using the 'Bradford Hill Guidelines', which considers factors including the strength of association, reversibility, and evidence of a plausible mechanism. In this paper we apply the Bradford Hill Guidelines to the link between social relationships and health. We conclude that having strong and supportive social relationships causes better health and longer life. Beyond establishing that social relationships are a causal factor for health, the method we used here can be applied to other areas where randomised trials are unethical or not feasible.