PHC 6001 Ch. 11 Confounding Questions And Answers | 2026 Updated Solutions | 100% Correct Answers

Which of the following can be thought of as a failure of the comparison group to reflect the counterfactual experience of the exposed group? systematic difference difference b/w groups being compared that distorts the true association b/w an exposure and dz; an *inherent characteristic of the population -occurs when the risk of dz in the unexposed group does not equal the risk of dz in the exposed group had they been unexposed which means that the difference in dz risk b/w the exposed and unexposed is due to factors other than just the exposure - CORRECT ANSWER-confounding 1. experimental and cohort: occurs whenthe exposed and unexposed groups differ by more than just the exposure, they differ by a third variable 2. case control: occurs when cases and controls have different characteristics - CORRECT ANSWER-Confounding Sources -results in distortion of the true association between E and D. Can bias toward or away from null; can be adjusted for (or fixed) ...to a point -"mixing of effects" because the estimate of the effect of exposure on dz is distored b/c it is mixed with the effect of other factors associated with the exposure and the disease. Sometimes called the "third variable" problem. - CORRECT ANSWER-confounding effects Which of the following tools is a visual representation of the relationship between a confounder, the exposure and the disease? - CORRECT ANSWER-DAG Which type of studies do not suffer from confounding by severity mainly because randomization balances the severity distribution of the compared groups? - CORRECT ANSWER-experimental studies Epidemiologists typically determine which variables are potential confounders by conducting which of the following to ascertain all currently known risk factors for the diseas under study? - CORRECT ANSWER-literature reviewWhich of the following ensures that the treatment assignment occurs in an unbiased fashion and will on average result in a balanced distribution of both known and unknown confounders if the sample size is large enough? - CORRECT ANSWERrandomization Which of the following means that investigators select the study subjects so that potential confounders are distributed in an identical manner? Pros: 1. simple and effective control of characteristics being matched 2. Useful for variables that are complex or difficult to capture (i.e. neighborhood) Cons: 3. only possible for known, measured confounders 4. can be difficult, expensive and time consuming ot find appropriate matches 5. cannot evaluate matched variable - CORRECT ANSWER-matching