Cause (medicine)

In medicine, a cause is the reason for a set of signs or symptoms or the factor that makes such signs or symptoms occur. Causes are also known as etiology (or aetiology) and can be further classified as either proximate or root.

Proximate cause

A proximate cause is an event which is closest to, or immediately responsible for causing, some observed result. This exists in contrast to a higher-level ultimate cause (or distal cause) which is usually thought of as the "real" reason something occurred.

Root cause

A root cause is an initiating cause of either a condition or a causal chain that leads to an outcome or effect of interest. Commonly, root cause is used to describe the depth in the causal chain where an intervention could reasonably be implemented to improve performance or prevent an undesirable outcome.

Causal inference

In epidemiology, researchers are often interested in determining the cause of diseases. The discipline of epidemiology has been developed to formally study and understand the causes of diseases, to determine the best ways to intervene and treat disease, and to provide a framework for understanding and controlling the spread of disease.

See also

• Epidemiology
• Pathogenesis
• Pathophysiology
• Risk factor

External links

• World Health Organization: Health Topics