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Cited by 426

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Causal thinking and complex system approaches in epidemiology

Open access
Galea, S., Riddle, M., Kaplan, G. A·2010·International Journal of Epidemiology
DOI 10.1093/ije/dyp296
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Abstract

Identifying biological and behavioural causes of diseases has been one of the central concerns of epidemiology for the past half century. This has led to the development of increasingly sophisticated conceptual and analytical approaches focused on the isolation of single causes of disease states. However, the growing recognition that (i) factors at multiple levels, including biological, behavioural and group levels may influence health and disease, and (ii) that the interrelation among these factors often includes dynamic feedback and changes over time challenges this dominant epidemiological paradigm. Using obesity as an example, we discuss how the adoption of complex systems dynamic models allows us to take into account the causes of disease at multiple levels, reciprocal relations and interrelation between causes that characterize the causation of obesity. We also discuss some of the key difficulties that the discipline faces in incorporating these methods into non-infectious disease epidemiology. We conclude with a discussion of a potential way forward.

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Metadata

Authors
Galea, S., Riddle, M., & Kaplan, G. A.
Venue
International Journal of Epidemiology
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2009-10-09
Volume
39
Issue
1
Pages
97-106
ISSN
  • 0300-5771 (ISSN-L)
  • 1464-3685
DOI
10.1093/ije/dyp296
OpenAlex
W2149825729
Cited by
426
References
8
FWCI
64.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Causal thinking and complex system approaches in epidemiology. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/ije/dyp296
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Galea, S., Riddle, M., & Kaplan, G. A. (2010). Causal thinking and complex system approaches in epidemiology. International Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyp296

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.