LAUSR

In a previous Hints and Kinks, we discussed the role of causal inference in tasks of health services research (HSR) using examples from health system interventions (Moser et al. 2020). In the present Hints and Kinks, we more formally introduce a principled framework for causal inference. Specifically, we discuss in more detail the role of counterfactuals for the definition of a causal effect and the ‘association is not causation’ adage. We continue on the example of a hospital merger (HM) as a health system intervention.