7 Observational Studies and Routine Data Flashcards
Q: What is the hierarchy of study design? (7)
A: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (highest – but can still be inadequate)
Randomised Controlled Trials
Cohort studies
Case-control studies
Ecological studies
Descriptive/cross-sectional studies
Case report/series (lowest – but can still be valuable)”
Q: What are descriptive studies in epidemiology?
A: examine the distribution of disease across various factors including population or sub-groups, geographical location and time period
Q: Best study design to determine the accuracy of diagnostic tests?
A: cross- sectional design
Q: Best study design to determine disease prognosis.
A: cohort study
Q: Best study design to determine the causes and risk factors of a disease?
A: various non-randomised designs
Q: Best study design to determine population healthcare needs?
A: various, inc ecological (aggregate) studies
Q: Best study design to determine treatment efficiency.
A: randomised trial
Q: What data is used in descriptive studies? (3) Where does data come from for other study designs?
A: Types of data used are:
Routine e.g. births, deaths
Survey e.g. Health Survey for England
Performance management: Quality and Outcomes Framework for GPs
Other study designs tend to collect their own data
Q: List 3 cross sectional survey examples.
A: • 2001 Census
• Health Survey for England
• NHS Inpatient Survey on patient experience
Q: What is routine data?
A: Data that are routinely collected and recorded in an ongoing systematic way, often for administrative or statutory purposes and without any specific research question in mind at the time of collection
Q: What are the types of routine data? (8)
A: Health outcome data* e.g. deaths, hospital admissions and primary care consultations or prescriptions, levels of well-being from national surveys
Exposures and health determinant data, e.g. smoking, air pollution, crime statistics
Disease prevention data, e.g. screening and immunisation uptake
Demographic data, e.g. census population counts
Geographical data*, e.g. health authority boundaries, location of GP practices
Health service provision data e.g. bed staff counts
Births
Deaths
Q: What are the advantages of routine data? Cost? Availability? Collection procedure? (4)
A: Relatively cheap Already collected and available Standardised collection procedures Relatively comprehensive – population coverage, large numbers Wide range of recorded items Available for past years Experience in use and interpretation
Q: What are the disadvantages of routine data? (5)
A: May not answer the question (no information or not enough detail)
Incomplete ascertainment (not every case captured)
Variable quality (e.g. variable diagnosis fields) // Validity may be variable (i.e. do they measure what you think they measure?)
Disease labelling may vary over time or by area
Need careful interpretation
Q: What are examples of health outcome data? (8)
A: Mortality Cancer Notification of infectious diseases Terminations of pregnancy Congenital anomalies Hospital episode statistics GP data e.g. QOF (Quality of Outcomes Framework) Road Traffic Accidents
Q: Why are cross sectional studies useful? What do they describe? Downfall?
A: useful for health care providers to allocate resources efficiently and plan effective prevention
Describe status of individuals with respect to absence or presence of both exposure and disease assessed at the same point in time
but cannot easily distinguish whether exposure preceded disease: chicken or egg
Q: What are cancer registrations? Useful for? Linked to? Good data?
A: Voluntary notification to local cancer registry: now national system (Also from death certificates)
both incidence and survival information
Increasingly being linked to hospital admissions data and national clinical audits
Good epidemiological data- allows us to determine most common types of cancer
Q: Who reports infectious diseases? Examples of such diseases. (4)
A: doctors
Includes food poisoning, meningitis, tuberculosis and plague
Q: What is the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) a component of? Rewards? Collection? Published?
A: component of the new General Medical Services contract for GPs from April 2004
rewards practices for the provision of quality care, and helps to fund further improvements in the delivery of clinical care
Collected in a national database system: Quality Management Analysis System
Practice-level data are published; being phased out in many areas
Q: What is the finished consultant episode?
A: the time spent under the continuous care of a specific consultant
Q: What is admission?
A: A patient’s stay in hospital, so comprises 1+ episodes and/or transfers between hospitals
Q: Why are case controls studies good? Suitable for? Requires? What’s compared?
A: Relatively cheap and quick to conduct
studying what might cause rare diseases
cases (with disease) and controls (without disease) and compare those who are exposed and unexposed from each group
You are comparing odd of being exposed among cases and controls
Q: What are controls in a case control study? Should be?
A: subjects free of the disease (or outcome of interest) during the same period of time in which the cases were identified
representative of the population of individuals who would have been identified and included as cases if they had also developed the disease
Q: What is the most difficult and critical issue in the design of case-control studies?
A: Selection of an appropriate comparison group
Q: What are sources of controls? (3) (general population) What do they all vary in? (4)
A: Neighbourhood
Friends/relatives (depends on disease)
Hospital or clinic-based
These all vary in amount of recall bias (getting people to remember things about the past), response rates, selection bias, cost