Confounding should definitely be on a short list of the most important concepts in research that we, as consumers of published clinical research, should learn about, clearly understand, and keep in mind.
I recommend that clinicians should be very selective in what they try to learn about research and should generally avoid reading primary research articles. There are many reasons for this recommendation. One reason is that there are so many practical things in clinical psychiatry that we can and should learn about that we won’t ever run out of them.
What is confounding?
Confounding is a very complicated and multifaceted phenomenon (Kyriacou and Lewis, 2016).
For what I think is a very clear explanation and a memorable example of what confounding means in the context of medical research, please see the following article on this website:
Coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer
Please make sure you have read (or re-read) that article and clearly understand what confounding means. Then, please continue reading the rest of this article, which explains “confounding by indication,” a special type of confounding.