Description, Prediction, and Causation in Sport and Exercise Medicine Research: Resolving the Confusion to Improve Research Quality and Patient Outcomes

Researchers often assign a label (such as a risk factor or predictor) to a characteris-tic that is statistically associated with an outcome (such as future injury). Labeling signifies that the characteristic has an established clinical value. More often than not, these labels are assigned pre-maturely and haphazardly. The rampant practice conflates research goals, the ultimate clinical value of the findings, and many risk factors/predictors that may not warrant the label. To address these is-sues and improve injury prevention research, we (1) outline the problem; (2) clarify the key differences between the research goals of description, causa-tion, and prediction/prognosis (along with labeling conventions); (3) differentiate the clinical implica-tions for each label; and (4) frame an appropriate scientific process to follow before applying a label.