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What Causes What
SMOKE

25-hydroxyvitamin D ↔ Disposable income

People with money and outdoor lives have higher 25(OH)D. That is not D causing the money.

Observational · High confidence

The association does not survive the backdoor. Usually SES, outdoor time, or healthy-user bias.

Mechanism

Autier et al. (2014): observational D–disease links do not survive RCTs. The same structure applies to D–income. Outdoor time, BMI, and health-seeking sit on the backdoor. VITAL then showed D3 does not even deliver the promised disease endpoints in a general population.

Caveats

Deficiency correction in institutionalized or deeply deficient groups is a different estimand. Do not use this edge to argue against treating rickets.

Effect

qualitative. Classic marker: outdoor leisure, latitude, adiposity, and wealth all move both variables.

Nodes

Biology & endocrinology25-hydroxyvitamin DSocioeconomic statusDisposable income

Named confounders

Cite this page

What Causes What. “25-hydroxyvitamin D → Disposable income.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-vitd-income-spurious (atlas updated 2026-08-31).

https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-vitd-income-spurious

Papers