Figure 2
From: Ill or just old? Towards a conceptual framework of the relation between ageing and disease
The distinction between component causes and sufficient causes Sufficient causes I and II have five component causes each and sufficient cause III has seven component causes. The component causes are depicted as A to J. All three sufficient causes share the component causes A and B, that can be interpreted as shared risk factors if the sufficient causes have distinct effects (adapted from Rothman, 1976 [9]).