Meaning & use
Covariate
Last updated
A variable that is possibly predictive of the outcome under study and is included in a statistical model to control for its effect.
See it in a sentence
The researchers included age and income as covariates in their regression model.
Adjusting for the covariate of baseline health status changed the study's conclusions significantly.
A note on using this word
Covariates are used in statistics to isolate the effect of the variable actually being studied by accounting for other influencing factors.
Words with a similar meaning
control variable
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