Causal Models and Causal Modelling in Obesity: Foundations, Methods and Evidence

Authors

Roger S Zoh
Xiaoxin Yu
Philip Dawid
George Davey Smith
Stephen J French
David B Allison

Language

English

Publication Date

10-23-2023

Journal

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

DOI

10.1098/rstb.2022.0227

PMID

37661742

PMCID

PMC10475873

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-4-2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Discussing causes in science, if we are to do so in a way that is sensible, begins at the root. All too often, we jump to discussing specific postulated causes but do not first consider what we mean by, for example, causes of obesity or how we discern whether something is a cause. In this paper, we address what we mean by a cause, discuss what might and might not constitute a reasonable causal model in the abstract, speculate about what the causal structure of obesity might be like overall and the types of things we should be looking for, and finally, delve into methods for evaluating postulated causes and estimating causal effects. We offer the view that different meanings of the concept of causal factors in obesity research are regularly being conflated, leading to confusion, unclear thinking and sometimes nonsense. We emphasize the idea of different kinds of studies for evaluating various aspects of causal effects and discuss experimental methods, assumptions and evaluations. We use analogies from other areas of research to express the plausibility that only inelegant solutions will be truly informative. Finally, we offer comments on some specific postulated causal factors.

This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Causes of obesity: theories, conjectures and evidence (Part II)’.

Keywords

Humans, Research Design, Causality, Obesity, causation, counterfactual, randomization, causal Inference, causal model, assignment mechanism

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Zoh, Roger S; Yu, Xiaoxin; Dawid, Philip; et al., "Causal Models and Causal Modelling in Obesity: Foundations, Methods and Evidence" (2023). Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications. 216.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/staff_pub/216