healthy-user

Someone who takes up a habit seen as healthy tends to have other healthy habits alongside it — it confounds the analysis.

Source: Healthy User and Related Biases in Observational Studies of Preventive Interventions: A Primer for Physicians
Shrank WH, Patrick AR, Brookhart MA. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2011;26(5):546-550
10.1007/s11606-010-1609-1
Where, in the source: the “The healthy user effect and related sources of bias” section
Checked at the source on: 2026-08-10
Verbatim: The official passage from this source is transcribed and checked in our own method document, with the date of verification.
Who wrote this: The wording of this entry is ours, written for people outside the field. The concept and its limits come from the source above, against which this wording is checked — it is neither a translation nor a copy of it.