You are investigating the role of physical activity in heart disease and suggest that physical activity protects against having a heart attack. while presenting these data to your colleagues, someone asks if you have thought about confounders such as factor x. this factor x could have confounded your interpretation of the data if it: a. is a factor for some other disease, but not heart disease. b. is a factor associated with physical activity and heart disease. c. is a part of the pathway by which physical activity affects heart disease. d. has caused a lack of follow-up of test subjects.