please can anyone tell me the difference between confounding bias and effect modification..well its explained in uworld but could not get it..both appears same to me.
please can u explain this stuf..
Means that there's difference among the different subgroups of the population under study.
For example;
Drug X worked on children but did not work on older adults. This is effect modification.
Confounding bias on the other hand, is for the entire population under study. Means you cannot say drug X worked or not because age was a confounding factor in the example above.
I know it's so confusing but just try to think this way, (subgroups means effect modification, entire study means confounding).
From Pre-Test Preventive Medicine and Public Health (a usmle step 2 reviewer):
Confounding:
- Is a "nuisance" factor that needs to be eliminated
- It causes a distortion of the results, simply because that factor is distributed unevenly in exposed and unexposed individuals.
For example:
- The association between coffee and lung cancer may be distorted by smoking. Because smoking is unevenly distributed between the two groups.
So when coffee and lung cancer are combined, it seems there is an association. But when smokers and non-smokers are considered separately for each group, there is actually no association between coffee and lung cancer.
Effect modification
- Is not a nuisance factor. It actually provides important information.
- The magnitude of the effect of an exposure on the outcome will vary according to the presence of a third factor.
In the example above:
- In contrast to confounding, effect modification does not depend on the fact that one group has "more smokers" than the other group.
Another example of effect modification:
- If a baby has malnutrition, a high bilirubin seems to be a much stronger risk factor for bilirubin-induced brain damage.
- Malnutrition here is not a confounding factor. Malnutrition is not unevenly distributed between, for example, "brain-damaged" and "no brain damage" groups. As a third factor, it increases the impact of high-bilirubin in relation to bilirubin-induced brain damage.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Confounding factor The 3rd factor (i.e. smoking) is unevenly distributed between groups A (i.e. lung cancer) and B (i.e. coffee), making groups A and B seem related but they are not.
Effect modification The 3rd factor (i.e. malnutrition) increases the impact of an exposure (i.e. high bilirubin) on an outcome (i.e. brain damage).
It's a bit hard to explain but I do hope this helped!
@avash.nrs: If it DID help and we meet someday, you owe me a... COKE!! )
GOT it sumwhat in my 'tiny' brain.these things really irritate me..such subtle differences,not even in kaplan and fa.Uworld is absolutely..i just pray the real xam is not exactly like uworld in total 100%......that wud be disstrous..so much hard qs to answeras far as the coke is concerned yeah mate,no problem..a MAC D burger and coke will be great..hope we meet and meet real soon..its been a gr8 experience talking to u and xapezx and am just amazed by the help u people did to methanks for everything
The simple and practical strategy to differentiate the Confounding from Effect Modification is to stratify the results based on the new factor(as most questions do it):
1-In CONFOUNDING; the relation in new subgroups is no longer meaningful and taking the confounder into account will distort the primary positive relation:
Example:
Alcohol------->Bladder Cancer RR=2 p-value<0.05
Now after stratification:
Alcohol in non-smoker---------->Bladder Cancer p>0.05
Alcohol in smoker----------------->Bladder Cancer p>0.05
2- In Effect Modification; the stratification based on new factor make the primary result more strong in one subgroup
Example is to categorizing patients based on certain HLA, Alleles, Ages, Family History
Alanine dye exposure------> bladder cancer RR:2 p<0.05
Now after stratification:
Alanine dye and positive Family Hx----> Bladder Ca RR:3 p<0.05
Alanine dye and no family Hx--------> Bladder Ca RR:1.5 p<0.05
You guys are wonderful!
Was going to skip this as uworld didn't explain it as such clearly!
Thanks
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