Some factors controlled for: smoking, history of antidiabetic meds, history of CVD meds, weight/height/BMI, level of exercise, income, alcohol consumption, N pregnancies.
I think these factors pretty well correlate with "health" (however you'd measure actually that).
> Despite having adjusted for several potential confounders, the major shortcoming of this study is the inability to distinguish between the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle and of avoidance of sun exposure.
Take depression for example. None of the factors you mentioned would control for it and depression is often not diagnosed, especially early on.
Agreed, and you already addressed this with your sibling comment. I just thought it was an amusing counterpoint to "healthy people go outside more than sick people".
Such a lazy critique.
Here's the actual study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joim.12251
Number of subjects: 39,973
Follow up period: 20 years
Some factors controlled for: smoking, history of antidiabetic meds, history of CVD meds, weight/height/BMI, level of exercise, income, alcohol consumption, N pregnancies.
I think these factors pretty well correlate with "health" (however you'd measure actually that).