Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I don't think that what you are describing is consistent with evidence. It appears that age increases risk, apart from other conditions which also increase risk. Also, they are correlated.
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I am not claiming what I was arguing is fact. I was extrapolating from the admittedly preliminary and unproven findings from the Kaiser study that article was based upon.
That said, nothing you say changes what I said. Age would increase risk because age increases the likelihood of having the suggested required pre-existing conditions. However, once the existence or non-existence of those conditions are known, age would become be a non-factor. Put another way, age is no longer a sine qua non. It is just an indicator of the likelihood of the existence of exacerbating influences, i.e. helpful toward diagnosis. But, if those influences are (or not) present, age should be irrelevant to prognosis (other than accounting for the fact that old people don't recover so well). Or, put it another way, age might be a concurrent cause, but not the proximate cause.
