Letter: The Hawthorne effect-behavioral changes from research observation-as confounder and mediator in the ERASE
Zuomin Wang1, Qinwei Liu1, Wangdong Deng2
1Urology of Shenzhen Longgang Central Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases
|February 23, 2026
Abstract
No abstract available in PubMed .
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