The phrase
"spurious associations" refers to false or misleading connections between two things. It means that there is a mistaken belief that two things are related or connected, but in reality, there is no genuine or valid connection between them.
Full definition
«Our findings suggest that previous associations between low vitamin D and atopic disease could be due to
spurious associations with other factors,» said Dr. Despoina Manousaki, the lead author and a PhD student at the Lady Davis Institute.
Initially, replication problems of case - control studies were often attributed to population stratification (case and control groups originating from genetically distinct populations) and to multiple testing without appropriate corrections, which could result
in spurious associations.