In the endometrial cancer case-control study, what technique was used to control for confounding?

• A. Matching by age, race, weight, parity
• B. Randomization
• C. Blinding
• D. Stratification

Answer: (A)

Balancing key factors between groups is how confounding is controlled in observational studies. By matching cases and controls on age, race, weight, and parity, the study ensuring that these potential confounders are distributed similarly in both groups. This makes it more likely that any observed association between the exposure and endometrial cancer reflects a real relationship rather than differences in age, race, body size, or childbearing history.

Other methods exist, but they play different roles: randomization isn’t typically feasible in a case-control study, blinding mainly reduces measurement bias rather than confounding, and stratification can adjust for confounding but is usually done during analysis rather than at the design stage.