Abstract
Up to now we have been studying the influence of a single factor on the distribution of a disease or of other health-related characteristics. This allowed us to concentrate on the essential ideas. Most diseases are “multi-factorial”, though; many factors exert their influence together. In this book we shall not deal with general methods that have been developed in order to analyze their joint influence; some tools will be mentioned in Chap. 28. The present chapter is devoted to a different problem, namely that of a factor which “confounds” the action of another one. It is of utmost importance.
The influence of a risk factor as found in a study may be only apparent and reflect the influence of another factor with which it is connected.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krickeberg, K., Van Trong, P., Thi My Hanh, P. (2019). Confounding. In: Epidemiology. Statistics for Biology and Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16368-6_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16368-6_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16367-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16368-6
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)