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The history of confounding - International Journal of Public Health

  • ️Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
  • ️Mon Jul 01 2002

Summary

Confounding is a basic problem of comparability-and therefore has always been present in science. Originally a plain English word, it acquired more specific meanings in epidemiologic thinking about experimental and non-experimental research. The use of the word can be traced to Fisher. The concept was developed more fully in social science research, among others by Kish. Landmark developments in epidemiology in the second half of the 20th century were by Cornfield and by Miettinen. These developments emphasised that reasoning about confounding is almost entirely an a priori process that we have to impose upon the data and the data-analysis to arrive at a meaningful interpretation. The problems of confounding present their old challenges again in recent applications to genetic epidemiology.

Zusammenfassung

Confounding ist ein grundlegendes Problem der Vergleichbarkeit und somit schon immer Teil der Wissenschaft. Ursprünglich ein einfaches englisches Wort, hat es in der experimentellen und nicht experimentellen epidemiologischen Forschung spezifischere Bedeutungen angenommen. Der Gebrauch des Wortes geht auf Fischer zurück. Das Konzept wurde in den Sozialwissenschaften unter anderen von Kish noch umfassender entwickelt. Historische Entwicklungen in der Epidemiologie der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts sind auf Cornfield und Miettinen zurückzuführen. Diese Entwicklungen verdeutlichten, dass die Argumentation mit Störfaktoren/Confounding ein fast ausschliesslich deduktiver Prozess ist, den wir für die Daten und Datenanalyse anwenden müssen, um zu einer aussagekräftigen Interpretation zu gelangen. Die Probleme des Confounding sind auch in der neueren Anwendung auf dem Gebiet der genetischen Epidemiologie dieselben geblieben.

Résumé

L'effet de confusion est un problème élémentaire de comparabilité et a donc toujours été présent en science. C'était à l'origine un simple mot d'anglais, mais il a acquis une signification spécifique dans la pensée épidémiologique par rapport à la recherche expérimentale et non expérimentale. L'utilisation du mot remonte à Fisher. Le concept a été approfondi dans la recherche en science sociale, entre autres par Kish. Le développement du concept en épidémiologie dans la deuxième moitié du 20ème siècle a été assuré par Cornfield et Miettinen. Ces développements ont mis l'accent sur le fait que le raisonnement sur l'effet de confusion est presque entièrement un processus a priori que nous devons imposer aux données et à l'analyse afin d'aboutir à une interprétation qui ait du sens. Les vieux défis liés à l'effet de confusion se représentent dans leurs applications récentes en épidémiologie génétique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leiden University Medical Center, PO Box 9600, NL-2300 RC, Leiden

    Jan P. Vandenbroucke MD PhD (Professor of Clinical Epidemiology)

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  1. Jan P. Vandenbroucke MD PhD

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Correspondence to Jan P. Vandenbroucke MD PhD.

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Vandenbroucke, J.P. The history of confounding. Soz Präventivmed 47, 216–224 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01326402

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  • Issue Date: July 2002

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01326402

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