When study statistics results are reported, what does it mean when authors say “results upon controlling for XYZ factors”?

Question

I don’t fully understand what controlling for a factor in a experiment means, especially when it comes to real world studies with large number of people in the trials. For e.g. ” Yogurt consumers had a higher DGAI score (ie, better diet quality) than nonconsumers. *Adjusted for demographic and lifestyle factors and DGAI*, yogurt consumers, compared with nonconsumers”
Looking for an intuitive way to understand what controlling for factors means.
Thank you in advance!

In: 3

Answer 1

You simply include/exclude people of particular categories from the dataset and/or measure the effect on just that group of people.

If you identify a statistically significant difference in outcome between groups, you can mathematically subtract this influence from the origninal result in proportion to the relative size of the smaller group within the whole dataset.