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  "path": "/t/thinking-clearly-about-association-studies-risk-factors-and-causal-salad-included/28679#post_11",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-30T11:44:13.000Z",
  "site": "https://discourse.datamethods.org",
  "textContent": "besttd:\n\n>   * IDA seems close to Tukey’s EDA. Is this observation correct?\n>\n\n\nYes with the exception of hiding Y for most of the IDA.\n\nbesttd:\n\n> Am I correct in reading f2harrell’s characterization of descriptive studies as: A descriptive study can hardly include a multivariable model of Y? (exceptions to this clunky rule are granted)\n\nYes. Multivariable models can provide the best descriptive statistics because they can analyze more than two variables at a time. A few examples:\n\n  * Showing the relative explained variation of a set of potential confounders in predicting treatment choice. It’s amazing how many papers using propensity scores fail to decode the scores.\n  * Showing age-adjusted outcomes by strata\n  * Computing the first canonical correlation relating a set of variables to another set of variables, to gauge the total strength of relationship between the sets\n  * Using nonlinear principal components analysis to find pre-transformations of Xs (how one X relates to all the others Xs)\n\n",
  "title": "Thinking Clearly about Association Studies (Risk Factors and Causal Salad included)"
}