[2] In 1965, the English statistician Sir Austin Bradford Hill proposed a set of nine criteria to provide epidemiologic evidence of a causal relationship between a presumed cause and an observed effect.
Bradford Hill's criteria had been widely accepted as useful guidelines for investigating causality in epidemiological studies but their value has been questioned because they have become somewhat outdated.
[citation needed] Some proposed options how to apply them include: An argument against the use of Bradford Hill criteria as exclusive considerations in proving causality is that the basic mechanism of proving causality is not in applying specific criteria—whether those of Bradford Hill or counterfactual argument—but in scientific common sense deduction.
[11] Others argue that the specific study from which data has been produced is important, and while the Bradford Hill criteria may be applied to test causality in these scenarios, the study type may rule out deducing or inducing causality, and the criteria are only of use in inferring the best explanation of this data.
[citation needed] Researchers have applied Hill’s criteria for causality in examining the evidence in several areas of epidemiology, including connections between exposures to molds and infant pulmonary hemorrhage,[14] ultraviolet B radiation, vitamin D and cancer,[15][16] vitamin D and pregnancy and neonatal outcomes,[17] alcohol and cardiovascular disease outcomes,[18] infections and risk of stroke,[19] nutrition and biomarkers related to disease outcomes,[20] foods and nutrients related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes[21] and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases.