Many clinicians are of the opinion that observational studies may provide only “statistical associations”, but not “causal inference”. And further, that only randomized designs ensure causal interpretation. For the same reason, many medical journals have made rules for all observational studies finding significant statistical associations to be presented as just “associations” often emphasizing that a causal inference is not possible.

中文翻译：

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统计关联与因果推断

许多临床医生认为，观察性研究可能仅提供“统计关联”，而不能提供“因果推断”。此外，只有随机设计才能确保因果解释。出于同样的原因，许多医学期刊为所有观察性研究制定了规则，发现显着的统计关联仅作为“关联”呈现，通常强调因果推断是不可能的。