Drug induced acute pancreatitis: Does it exist?

Table 4 Bradford Hill criteria for causation

Temporality - causal factor must precede effect

Strength of association - magnitude of the relative risk estimates observed

Consistency of the association - extent to which scientific results are similar across the entire body of evidence

Biologic gradient (dose-response) - the extent to which the relative risk estimates increase in magnitude as the dose of the exposure increases

Biologic plausibility - the extent to which a mechanism of action has been proposed, studied and demonstrated in toxicological or other laboratory based studies

Specificity - refers to the precision with which the exposure and the outcome can be defined

Coherence - the extent to which the evidence and hypotheses for the results fit together into a reasonable and well-tested explanation

Experimentation - the extent to which a randomized clinical trials or cohort studies are available

Analogy - the extent that the purported exposure-disease relationship under consideration is similar to other relationships