Biological plausibility
Biological Plausibility
Biological plausibility (/baɪəˈlɒdʒɪkəl plɔːzɪˈbɪlɪti/) is a term used in epidemiology and medicine to describe the likelihood that a correlation or association observed in statistical analysis could be explained by biological mechanisms.
Etymology
The term "biological plausibility" is derived from the words "biological", pertaining to biology or living organisms, and "plausibility", which refers to the quality of seeming reasonable or probable.
Definition
Biological plausibility is one of the Bradford Hill criteria, a group of minimal conditions necessary to provide adequate evidence of a causal relationship between an incidence and a consequence. It suggests that the observed association should make sense in the context of current biological knowledge.
Related Terms
- Causal inference: The process of drawing a conclusion about a causal connection based on the conditions of the occurrence of an effect.
- Confounding: A distortion of the association between an exposure and an outcome that occurs when the study group is not representative of the population.
- Epidemiological transition: A phase of development witnessed by a sudden and stark increase in population growth rates brought by improved food security and innovations in public health and medicine.
- Hill's criteria of causation: A group of 9 criteria that can be useful in establishing epidemiologic evidence of a causal relationship between a presumed cause and an observed effect.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Biological plausibility
- Wikipedia's article - Biological plausibility
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