A positive or a negative confounding variable? A simple teaching aid for clinicians and students
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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities
Published on: September 11, 2021
Abla Mehio-Sibai1, Manning Feinleib, Tarek A Sibai
1Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. ansibai@aub.edu.lb
Abstract:
Anticipating the direction of a confounding variable can be problematic especially to introductory students. Using elementary rules of mathematics, we describe below a simple instructional tool for deriving the direction of confounding bias. The tool is illustrated with examples and a heuristic mathematical justification is also described.
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