Pick up the pace! Slow walkers four times more likely to die from COVID-19, study finds

[hlthe2b]

41. It is a confounded proxy, inadequate without including additional variables to adjust for their .

affects or synergistic relationship. Some might argue skin color to be an adequate proxy for income and socioeconomic status (if you were rather race-ignorant) because percentage-wise more white Americans are wealthy. It is a confounded measure because of course other factors influence SES in the US and we surely have our share of poor white populations.

Correlation does not equate to causation and a well-conducted study adjusts for confounding, including in their choice of proxy variables. "Nature," which excels in presenting basic science studies/bench science studies, mostly drops the ball on epidemiological studies, generally publishing mere correlational, i.e., ecological studies based on trends To not learn these concepts will leave you increasingly "confounded," yourself.

As a Brit, there are well-done epi studies for you to learn from. Hell, even the original smoking and cancer study conducted by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Brandford Hill would a great starting place for you to learn these concepts. And, the BMJ, Lancet, and many other British journals can teach you what constitutes well-conducted epidemiological studies. Perhaps you may spend some time reading there. Then pull the fully discredited Andrew Wakefield's infamous MMR and autism study to see the impacts of poorly conducted epidemiology and why these concepts are so important.