Does tallness cause heart disease? No, but sex does

var citeN=0;Popular beliefs about medical issues are sometimes motivated by a statistical phenomenon known as “spurious relationship”, among other names. Two variables X and Y are influenced by a third variable C, which leads to X and Y being correlated and thus the impression that X and Y are causally associated. Take a look at the table below, which I blogged about in a previous post (citeN=

arterial stiffness, diabetes, gender, glucose, heart disease