Epidemiology: frequency, risk and cause

One of the strongest clues to a cause in this field is die Dosis-Wirkungs-Beziehung: more exposure, more disease. German states it with a pair of words whose word order has to be learned once. English says the higher the dose, the stronger the effect, and builds both halves alike. German opens with je and answers with desto or umso, and the halves are not alike at all. The je half is a subordinate clause and sends its verb to the end; the desto half is a main clause and puts its verb straight after the comparative: Je länger jemand raucht, desto höher ist sein Risiko. When the meaning is clear the verbs may go altogether, and a paper often does exactly that — je höher die Dosis, desto stärker die Wirkung. What never works is the English order carried over into the second half, with the subject before the verb.