Confounder
By
Cancer Council NSW
A factor that is linked to the outcome of a study and unevenly distributed in the study cohorts.
For example, if people in the experimental group of a controlled trial are younger than those in the control group, it will be difficult to decide whether a lower risk of death in one group is due to the intervention or the difference in age. Age is then said to be a confounder, or a confounding variable.
Randomisation is used to minimise imbalances in confounding variables between experimental and control groups.
Confounding is a major concern in non-randomised clinical trials.
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