Case-Control and Other Study Designs

Question 1

Case-Control Study

Answer 1

• a group of study participants who have the health phenomenon of interest (e.g. a disease); cases.
• a group who do not have that health phenomenon; controls.

Question 2

In a 2x2 Table, What is ___ classified as?

A B C D

Answer 2

A = cases who were exposed
B = controls who were exposed
C = cases who were not exposed
D = controls who were not exposed

Question 3

What is the goal of Case-Control Studies?

Answer 3

• to determine if there is a difference in rates of exposure in the cases versus the controls

Question 4

Benefits of Case-Control Studies? (4)

Answer 4

• resource-efficient
• don’t have to take a long time to set up
• useful for testing hypotheses about potential causal factors
• low-risk and low-cost

Question 5

Neighbourhood Controls

Answer 5

• composed of people like them in terms of social and cultural factors

Question 6

Hospitalized Controls

Answer 6

• ready access to hospitalized patients

Question 7

Multiple Controls

Answer 7

• more than one control per case

Question 8

Individual Matching

Answer 8

• used to match cases and controls on several characteristics

Question 9

Group Matching

Answer 9

• selecting controls, you will ensure that the group of controls all together has characteristics reflective of the cases

Question 10

Limitations in Recall

Answer 10

• samples have trouble recalling information

Question 11

Cross-Sectional Studies

Answer 11

• uses a single “slice” or cross-section of time; a single point of data collection
• collecting exposure and disease histories simultaneously, in a single period of observation

Question 12

Cross-Sectional Studies are also called?

Answer 12

• prevalence studies

- because they are only concerned with prevalent cases (“slice in time”)

Question 13

Benefits of Cross-Sectional Studies?

Answer 13

• ideal for determining the prevalence of health phenomena in a population
• used to identify relationships between health phenomena and potential risk or protective factors

Question 14

Risk Factors

Answer 14

• if health phenomena is more common in the case group than in the control group

Question 15

Protective Factors

Answer 15

• if health phenomena is more common in the control group than in the case group

Question 16

Spurious Correlations

Ex.

Answer 16

• two variables can relate without having any meaningful relationship between them
• Ex. increased rates of ice cream and murder rates

Question 17

Ecological Studies

Answer 17

• uses maps

Question 18

Ecological Fallacy

Answer 18

• attributing relationships observed at the group level to the level of the individual

Question 19

Why are Ecological Studies used? (3)

Answer 19

• used for generating hypotheses for future research
• sometimes the only data available for analysis is group data
• Maps can be an incredibly useful analytical tool

Question 20

Information Bias

Answer 20

• judgement of hypothesis

Question 21

Information Bias

Answer 21

• judgement of hypothesis