confounders
Lurking statistical variables
Confounders are variables that distort the apparent relationship between two things being studied.
In research, a confounder correlates with both the cause and effect under investigation, making it hard to determine what's actually driving results: Age was a confounder in the study linking coffee to heart disease.
Identifying and controlling for confounders is essential to valid conclusions.
Untreated subjects for comparison
- placeboInactive therapeutic substitute
- randomizationIntroducing chance systematically
- blindingPainfully intense light
- baselineStandard for comparison
allocation · stratification · counterbalancing · crossover · covariates · standardization · homogeneity · clinical trial
Variable controlled in analysis
- randomizationIntroducing chance systematically
- blindingPainfully intense light
- stratificationDivision into distinct levels
- matchingIdentical in appearance
adjustment · regression · multivariate · epidemiology · cohort · cross-sectional · longitudinal · selection bias
Human-made historical object
- spuriousFalse though appearing genuine
- biasUnfair inclination or prejudice
- noiseUnwanted auditory disturbance
- errorFault in communication
distortion · misattribution · false positive · false negative · measurement error · sampling error · systematic error
Factor that adds difficulty
- interferenceUnwelcome involvement in affairs
- contaminationIntroduction of impurities
- noiseUnwanted auditory disturbance
- limitationBound on extent
control group
Untreated subjects for comparison
- placeboInactive therapeutic substitute
- randomizationIntroducing chance systematically
- blindingPainfully intense light
baseline · allocation · stratification · counterbalancing · crossover · covariates · standardization · homogeneity · clinical trial · intervention
covariate
Variable controlled in analysis
- randomizationIntroducing chance systematically
- blindingPainfully intense light
- stratificationDivision into distinct levels
matching · adjustment · regression · multivariate · epidemiology · cohort · cross-sectional · longitudinal · selection bias · covariance
artifact
Human-made historical object
- spuriousFalse though appearing genuine
- biasUnfair inclination or prejudice
- noiseUnwanted auditory disturbance
error · distortion · misattribution · false positive · false negative · measurement error · sampling error · systematic error
complication
Factor that adds difficulty
- interferenceUnwelcome involvement in affairs
- contaminationIntroduction of impurities
- noiseUnwanted auditory disturbance
- causationcause, effect, because, causality, causation
- research validityvalidity, reliability, replicability, reproducibility, generalizability
- puzzlespuzzles, sudoku, jigsaw puzzle, puzzle cube, crossword
- puzzlerspuzzle master, brainteasers, brain-teasers, conundrums, enigmas
- research qualityvalidity, reliability, accuracy, rigor, soundness
- epidemiologyepidemic, epidemiology, pandemic, outbreak, endemic