Abstract
A confounder is an exposure, external to our hypothesis, that biases our measure of association unless it is controlled. When we compare our exposed population with the unexposed comparison group the disease outcome will be different in the two groups even if the exposed had not been exposed. The comparison is confounded by an external factor that has to be a cause of the disease or a strong correlate for a cause of the disease.
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Olsen, J., Christensen, K., Murray, J., Ekbom, A. (2010). Confounding. In: An Introduction to Epidemiology for Health Professionals. Springer Series on Epidemiology and Public Health, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1497-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1497-2_17
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