Caspian journal of internal medicine
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Caspian J Intern Med · Jan 2012
ReviewMethodological issues of confounding in analytical epidemiologic studies.
Confounding can be thought of as mixing the effect of exposure on the risk of disease with a third factor which distorts the measure of association such as risk ratio or odds ratio. This bias arises because of complex functional relationship of confounder with both exposure and disease (outcome). ⋯ The criteria, source of confounding and several points in confounding issues have been addressed. The advantages and disadvantages of several strategies for control of confounding have been discussed.