Causal reasoning · Confounding
Confounding and Adjustment
What changes when comparison groups have different mixtures of an outcome-related characteristic?
Page 1 of 7 · Big Picture
The big picture: Confounding and Adjustment
How can different group composition distort a crude comparison?
Why a policy analyst should care
A crude difference may reflect unequal group composition rather than the exposure itself, while careless adjustment can introduce new distortions.
Follow the idea from the opening question to a practical decision. These are the conceptual moves this module will develop:
1 Question Why can the crude comparison mislead?
2 Explore Separate composition from within-stratum difference
3 Formalize Standardize to a common population
4 Transfer Audit an adjusted access estimate
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