Invited Commentary: Cross-Sectional Studies and Causal Inference-It's Complicated.

In this issue of the Journal, Savitz and Wellenius (Am J Epidemiol. 2023;192(4):514-516) discuss the contribution of cross-sectional studies to causal inference when the data are used to address etiological research questions. We elaborate on their thoughts with a discussion of the conditions needed for addressing etiology with the cross-sectional design, using a modern causal inference lens.