Approaches to Confounder Selection in Observational Studies Investigating Associations Between Physical Activity and Health-Related Outcomes: A Review.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There are many different confounder selection approaches. It is considered best practice, and recommended by reporting guidelines, that the choice of confounders is described and justified. We aimed to describe practices in confounder selection in epidemiological studies using observational data to investigate the effect of physical activity-related exposures on health-related outcomes. METHODS: A structured search strategy was used to identify studies estimating the effect of a physical activity-related exposure on a health-related outcome using individual-level observational data, published in 2021-2022. A total of 1353 articles were identified in the screening process, 300 of ..