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LMAP > Designing epidemiological studies > Flashcards

Designing epidemiological studies Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 2 main types of epidemiological investigation?

A

Descriptive
Analytic

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2
Q

What is descriptive epidemiology?

A

Describes the problem often at an aggregated level
Can be used to inform later analytic research

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3
Q

What is analytic epidemiology?

A

Deploy and test hypotheses often at a person-level through which association can be measured and causation inferred

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4
Q

What are the five types of epidemiological investigation that employ descriptive epidemiology?

A
  • Case report
  • Case series
  • Cross sectional
  • Longitudinal
  • Ecological
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5
Q

What is a statistic in epidemiology?

A

A fixed value, derived from a sample that estimates the value in the population

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6
Q

What is a parameter in epidemiology?

A

A fixed, often unknown value, which describes an entire poplulation

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7
Q

What is a point estimate?

A

(Confidence interval)
Statistic that seeks to estimate the parameter

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8
Q

What is a case report?

A

A description of new diseases, new presentations or new findings

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9
Q

What is a case series?

A

Series of case reports

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10
Q

How are case reports usually structured and presented?

A
  • As a bulletin for professionals
  • As a learning opportunity (CME/CPD)
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11
Q

What is a cross sectional study?

A

Typically describes the prevalence of a condition across a population at a single point in time - i.e a snapshot

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12
Q

What is an example of a cross sectional study?

A

Survey

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13
Q

What is a pro of utilising cross sectional studies?

A

Cheap and easy to carry out

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14
Q

What are the cons of utilising cross sectional studies?

A
  • Lacks follow up so risk or incidence rate not determined
  • Also temporal relationships cannot be easily determined therefore unable to determine whether exposure preceded outcome
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15
Q

When can cross-sectional studies be used to determine causal associations?

A

When confident that the exposure will not change over time (eg.race,ethnicity)

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16
Q

What is a longitudinal study?

A

Describe the prevalence of incidence of an exposure or outcome over time

17
Q

What are some possible aspects of a longitudinal study?

A
  • Use of aggregated data - can be made up of multiple cross-sectional analysis
  • Use of person-level data - can follow same participants over time
18
Q

What are ecological studies?

A

Compare groups rather than individuals (only aggregate level data)
- Can be cross-sectional OR longitudinal
- Can be analytical or descriptive

19
Q

What is ecological fallacy

A

Also called aggregation bias
- Refers to assumptions that associations between groups apply to individuals

20
Q

What is the purpose of ecological studies if they cannot be used for individuals?

A

First step in exploring a research question and can generate hypotheses in disease aetiology

21
Q

What type of data do ecological studies typically use and what are the pros of this?

A

Secondary data - data that is already publicly available
Pros - Readily acccessible, cheap and quick to complete

22
Q

When can ecological studies be conducted?

A
  • When level of inference is at population level anyway
  • When the variability of exposure within its group is limited
23
Q

What are the cons of ecological studies?

A
  • Prone to ecological fallacy
  • Secondary data analyses may have to make assumptions because the data analysed weren’t intended for the new purpose. This may introduce limitations on comparability of the data.
  • Cannot always tell if exposures preceded outcomes
24
Q

What are the healthcare equivalent terms to primary and secondary data?

A

Routinely and non-routinely collected data
- Routinely includes things like the census or electoral register (secondary data)
- Non routinely - data collected for a specific purpose (primary data)

25
Q

What is data linkage?

A

Data linkage involves joining two or more datasets together that investigate the same groups of groups/individuals and in doing so, finding out more than was possible by analysis of either original dataset alone

26
Q

What is a case-control study?

A

Involves comparing individuals with a particular condition/disease with individuals with the same general characteristics but without the disease or condition of interest

27
Q

How is a case control study conducted?

A
  • Info on past exposure to possible risk factors is obtained for both cases and controls and
  • Frequency and intensity of exposure in the cases is compared with that in the controls
28
Q

What is the case definition?

A

Where clear eligibility criteria must be defined before starting the study

29
Q

What 2 factors need to be considered when selecting controls for a case control study?

A
  • Source of controls
  • Assessment of exposure
30
Q

What is considered when finding a source of controls for a case control study?

A

Controls should come from the same study population as the cases and should be representative of the population at risk

31
Q

What is considered when assessing exposure of controls when conducting a case control study?

A

The exposure should be measurable with similar accuracy to exposure in the cases

32
Q

What is a common bias when examining case exposure compared with control exposure?

A

RECALL BIAS
- Cases more likely to remember more info and give more reliable accounts as it is routine for them and controls likely to give less reliable histories

33
Q

What is done when there are very few cases due to rarity of disease?

A

Statistical confidence increased by having more than one control for each case

34
Q

What are the advantages of case control studies?

A
  • Good for studying rare diseases
  • Relatively inexpensive
  • Quick to obtain data
35
Q

What are the disadvantages of case control studies?

A
  • Bias with exposure assessment
  • Difficulty in selecting good control group
  • Limited to assessing just one outcome
  • Cannot provide any info about temporal relationship between an exposure and disease
36
Q

What is the formula for calculating the odds ratio?

A
37
Q

What are the odds of exposure in cases?

A

The ratio of exposed cases to unexposed cases

38
Q

What are the odds of exposure in controls

A

The ratio of exposed controls to unexposed controls

39
Q

What is cross product calculation of odds ratio?

A

LMAP (2 decks)

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