Individual causal attribution in occupational disease claims: a structured epidemiological approach

The determination of whether occupational exposure contributed to disease in an individual worker is a key element in occupational disease adjudication, particularly within public insurance systems such as that of Israel. At present, such assessments often rely on expert judgment grounded in clinical intuition rather than on structured, reproducible inference.This paper proposes a structured epidemiological approach to individual causal attribution, integrating population-based evidence with case-specific analysis. The framework is organised into four analytical stages: appraisal of causal capacity, quantitative estimation of association, individualised causal partitioning, and probabilistic legal interpretation.Israel’s hybrid medico-legal system offers a suitable setting for piloting this approach. Embedding structured epidemiological reasoning into occupational disease adjudication may enhance transparency, scientific integrity, and consistency, thereby strengthening fairness and public trust in compensation decisions.