Confounding

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Step 5: Discussion Questions

Carefully consider the following questions. Write down your answers and be prepared to discuss them during the seminar section.
  1. Which study design offers the best opportunity to control for confounding -- randomized clinical trial, cohort study, or case-control study? Explain your reasoning and make examples to prove your point.
  2. Suppose that in the study of artificial sweetener and bladder cancer you wanted to evaluate the hypothesis that bladder cancer varies by geographic area. Would you match on geographic area? Please, explain your answer.
  3. A principle of case-control studies is that controls should be selected independently of exposure status.  Under what circumstances would matching violate this principle?  What can be done about this type of violation?

Questions for the Intellectually Curious:

Why is it important to distinguish between “confounding” and “confounders”?

Introduction   >   Learning
Objectives		   >   Student
Role		   >   Designs
Questions		   >   Data
Analysis		   >   Discussion
Questions		    


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