Key Terms Flashcards
What is Bias?
Systematic error in study design, conduct, or analysis that leads to results that deviate from the truth.
What is a Case-Control Study?
An observational study that selects participants based on disease status (cases vs. controls) and compares their exposure histories.
What is a Censored Observation?
In survival analysis, an observation for which the time until an event is not known because the participant was lost to follow up or was still disease-free at the end of the study.
What is a Cohort Study?
An observational study that identifies a group of individuals, determines their exposure status, and follows them over time to observe the development of a disease.
What is a Component Cause?
A single risk factor in a constellation of risk factors needed to produce disease.
What is a Cross-Sectional Study?
An observational study that samples a population at a single point in time to assess exposure and disease status simultaneously.
What is Cumulative Survival?
A measurement of survival over time, calculated by the product of survival at each interval.
What is an Ecological Study?
An observational study that looks for associations by examining population-level characteristics rather than individual data.
What is Experimental Study Design?
Any research design in which the investigator actively intervenes in the lives of the participants.
What is Incidence?
The frequency of new cases of an event (such as disease onset) that occurs after some specified time.
What is Loss to follow-up?
A kind of censoring in which participants leave a study before the outcome is observed.
What is Observational Study Design?
Any research design in which the investigator does not intervene in the lives of participants.
What is Odds Ratio (OR)?
A measure of association between an exposure and an outcome, calculated as the odds of exposure among the cases divided by the odds of exposure among the controls or the odds of a disease in exposed subjects divided by the odds of disease in unexposed subjects.
What is Population Attributable Risk (PAR)?
The proportion of disease risk in a total population associated with an exposure.
What is Prevalence?
The frequency of an existing event (such as cases of disease) at the time counting begins.
What is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)?
An experimental study design in which participants are randomly assigned to receive or not receive an intervention over time.
What is Rate Ratio?
The ratio of the incidence rates in two comparison groups.
What is Relative Risk (RR)?
The ratio of the risk of an event in an exposed group compared to the risk in an unexposed group.
What are Rothman’s Causal Pies?
A model that illustrates that disease results from a combination of component causes that act as a sufficient cause.
What is Selection Bias?
A type of bias caused by non-random participant selection, which can lead to inaccurate results.
What is Survival Analysis?
Statistical methods for analyzing time until an event of interest, including methods for handling censored observations.
What is Temporality?
A criteria for causality that mandates that the exposure of interest must precede the outcome.
