Epidemiologic Study Designs chnri流行病学研究设计 CHNRI.pptVIP

Epidemiologic Study Designs Nancy D. Barker, MS Epidemiologic Study Design The plan of an empirical investigation to assess an E – D relationship. Exposure Alcohol consumption Raw hamburger Smoking Health Outcome Breast Cancer E. Coli Lung Cancer Type of Epidemiologic Studies Experimental: Randomization to exposure Observational: No randomization Experimental Studies The investigator through randomization allocates subjects to different categories of exposure. Randomization: An allocation procedure that assigns subjects into (one of the) exposure groups being compared so that each subject has the same probability of being in one group as in any other. Randomization Tends to make demographic, behavioral, genetic, and other characteristics of the comparison groups similar except for their exposure status. If the study finds any difference in health outcome between the comparison groups, that difference can only be attributable to their difference in exposure status. Experimental Studies Advantage: Randomization – unmeasured variables evenly distributed among exposure Potential for bias is low Disadvantage: Ethical concerns Cost Length of study Not good for rare D Observational Studies Investigator observes the exposure and outcome status of each Most Epidemiologic studies are observational Observational Studies Descriptive Studies Analytic Studies Observational Studies Descriptive Studies To organize and summarize data according to time, place, and person. Why? Describe natural history of disease Extent of public health problem Identify populations at greatest risk Allocation of health care resources Suggest hypothesis about causation Observational Studies Analytic Studies Used to quantify the association between an exposure (E) and a health outcome (D), and to test hypotheses about causal relationships. Provides a control group (baseline) Test hypotheses about determinants Causation Causation In any research field involving the condu