Editorial Commentary: Hormonal Contraception and Hip Pain: Clinical Insights and Association, not Causation.

Abstract

Scientific literature commonly aims to establish an association between exposures of interest- hormonal contraception in the case of the present study-and their dependent effects. As readers, studies confirming risk factors we suspected all along-or even those bringing new risk factors to light-are often stored away in our clinical minds as causation rather than association, regardless of how clearly their findings were presented. This is a bias we must be cognizant of given that some exposures of interest are nonmodifiable whereas others, while modifiable, should not necessarily be modified.