Hospital Mortality

When BenS sent this item from Medscape [registration required] to me, he added, "Don't take a wheelchair to the hospital". Since he is a socionomologist, I had to ask if he was serious.

A major finding in this study was the contribution of functional status at the time of hospital admission as an independent predictor of mortality. Thus, patients who were in wheelchair or bedridden were 1.4 times and 4 times, respectively, more likely to die compared to patients who walked without problems.

One of many questions: if the baseline comparison group walked without problems, is that in contrast with those who walked with problems?

When you read the study, you cannot help but wonder whether epidemiologists have ever heard of multiple linear regression models. Maybe Alex, at Marginal Revolution, can help explain the concept to them.