Semiyu Adejare Deribigbe, Wafa Barhoumi Hamdi, Khadeegha Alzouebi, William Frick, Assad Asil Companioni
Understanding student perceptions of social computing and online tools to enhance learning
PloS one
oral conditions represent critical public health challenge together descriptive predictive epidemiology causal inference crucial role developing testing preventive oral health interventions identifying correlations actual causes disease causal inference may quantify average effect interventions guide policies although authors usually explicit oral health studies guided causal questions however methodological deficiencies limit interpretability implementation findings manuscript call action use causal inference oral research application starts asking theoretically sound questions explicit causal relationships defining estimates evaluate measuring properly beyond promoting causal analytical approaches emphasize need causal thinking promote thoughtful research questions use appropriate methods answer causal inference relies plausibility assumptions underlying data analysis quality data argue highquality observational studies used estimate average causal effects although individual efforts embrace causal inference dentistry essential yield substantial results led systematic structural change field urge scientific societies funding bodies dental schools journals promote transparency research causal thinking causal inference projects move field toward meaningful studies also time researchers move forward connect community coproduce investigations translate findings engage interventions impact public health conclude highlighting importance triangulating results different data sources methods support causal inference inform decisionmaking interventions effectively improve population oral health