Investigating Risk Factors and the Incidence of Lung Disease Flashcards
What is a risk factor?
Is any factor that correlates with an increased chance of suffering from a particular condition or disease.
What is the incidence of disease?
Describes the number of cases of a disease that occur in within a particular group of people within a given time.
What are prospective studies?
Involve collecting data as it becomes available.
Strength of prospective studies
It can be beneficial in that more accurate data can be obtained.
Limitation of prospective studies
It can be highly time consuming.
What are retrospective studies?
Involve collecting data from the past.
Strength of retrospective studies
Results can be obtained more rapidly.
Limitation of retrospective studies
Data collected may be unreliable as people forget details or alter them.
Sample size:
The number of people involved in the study is very important. A study with a large sample size will have more reliable results.
Individuals in the sample:
If the study only has women aged 20-40 this data is not able to suggests the effect on a male or an older woman, it is therefore important to state the who the data is referring to when evaluating it.
Levels of exposure
Make sure to pay attention to the different levels of exposure to the risk factor that has been included in the study. E.g., 10 cigarettes a day, 20 cigarettes a day, no cigarettes and for how long.
Control group
Identify if the control group matches the other groups closely enough. The people in the control group should be of a similar age and background to those in the other groups.
Statistical significance
Try to determine if the differences between groups are sufficiently large and whether any statistical tests have been carried out to test the significance of the results.
