"After adjusting for differences in age, sex, race, and ethnicity, the scientists found veterans from Camp Lejeune had a 70% higher rate of Parkinson’s disease than the Camp Pendleton group." Why didn't they adjust for socioeconomic status? Wealthier people tend to be able to afford better medical care, live in healthier environments, eat healthier foods, etc. These could all be confounding factors, and a study like…
From the paper (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2...):
> To control for potential confounding, we included age, sex, race (Black, White, other), and ethnicity (Hispanic, non-Hispanic) in all models. We also tested models that included rank (officer, enlisted) and smoking status (ever, never), though smoking status was unknown for a substantial proportion of the cohort. We repeated analyses in subgroups defined by sex and by race and ethnicity. We conducted several analyses to explore possible biased ascertainment of PD in Camp Lejeune veterans due to potential awareness of the contamination and presumptive service connection that entitles them to VA benefits.
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> We additionally tested associations in men and women separately and conducted sensitivity analyses that adjusted for total number of years of VHA health care usage.
These analyses were evidently deemed adequate by peer reviewers. If anyone thinks there are other confounding factors they can go ahead and do that analysis and publish as well. Sciencing continues.