In response to Pat, who wrote:

can a statistician among us, explain this to me???  Thanks, Pat in SNJ

from a current study on gut microbiota and bronchiolitis in Pediatrics

"We did not control for breastfeeding status because it was considered an ancestor variable of the association of interest (ie, the relationship between breastfeeding and likelihood of bronchiolitis may be mediated by gut microbiota), and adjustment of an ancestor variable would bias the inference toward the null."

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Aside from a statistician's input, would also like to hear from someone about study design re: decision not to control for breastfeeding status.  

Debra Swank, RN BSN IBCLC
Ocala, Florida USA
More Than Reflexes Education
http://www.MoreThanReflexes.org
http://www.morethanreflexes.org/on-learning/

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