What is a confounding variable in science?
A confounding variable (confounder) is a factor other than the one being studied that is associated both with the disease (dependent variable) and with the factor being studied (independent variable). A confounding variable may distort or mask the effects of another variable on the disease in question.
How do you find a confounded variable?
If there is a clinically meaningful relationship between an the variable and the risk factor and between the variable and the outcome (regardless of whether that relationship reaches statistical significance), the variable is regarded as a confounder.
Can variables be confounded in an experiment?
A confounding variable is a third variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables. Failing to account for confounding variables can cause you to wrongly estimate the relationship between your independent and dependent variables.
What does it mean when an experiment is confounded?
Confounding occurs when the experimental controls do not allow the experimenter to reasonably eliminate plausible alternative explanations for an observed relationship between independent and dependent variables.
What is confounding variable in epidemiology?
Confounding is the distortion of the association between an exposure and health outcome by an extraneous, third variable called a confounder.
What is confounding in statistics example?
For example, if you are researching whether lack of exercise leads to weight gain, then lack of exercise is your independent variable and weight gain is your dependent variable. Confounding variables are any other variable that also has an effect on your dependent variable.
Is age a confounding or extraneous variable?
To return to the example, age might be an extraneous variable. The researchers could control for age by making sure that everyone in the experiment is the same age. If they didn’t, age would become a confounding variable.
Can variables be confounded?
Confounding variables are those that affect other variables in a way that produces spurious or distorted associations between two variables. They confound the “true” relationship between two variables.