Berkson’s Bias

Q: What is Berkson’s Bias? 


Answer: Berkson’s Bias also known as Berkson Fallacy or Berksonian Bias was proposed in 1946 by Joseph Berkson. According to his theory, any study conducted in a medical care setting is exposed to bias as both exposure and disease status is affected. This is an extremely important form of selection bias which can potentially cloud any prospective or retrospective study. 



References/further readings:

1. Berkson J. Limitations of the Application of Fourfold Table Analysis to Hospital Data. Biometrics Bulletin. 1946;2(3):47–53.

2. Walter SD. Berkson's bias and its control in epidemiologic studies. J Chronic Dis 1980;33:721–25

3. Roberts RS, Spitzer WO, Delmore T, Sackett DL. An empirical demonstration of Berkson's bias. J Chronic Dis 1978;31:119–28

4. Schwartzbaum J, Ahlbom A, Feychting M. Berkson's bias reviewed. Eur J Epidemiol 2003;18:1109–12

5. Westreich D. Berkson's bias, selection bias, and missing data. Epidemiology 2012;23:159–64