Uses and Abuses of Screening Tests
Chapter Contents Ethical Implications 85 What are the Potential Harms of Screening? 85 Criteria for Screening 86 If a Test is Available, Should it be Used? 86 Assessment of Test…
PUBLIC HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY
The Limitations of Observational Epidemiology
Chapter Contents False Claims 71 Amateurs at Work 72 Administrative Databases 74 Weak Associations: Size Matters 75 Porous Peer Review 76 Fraud 77 Conclusion 78 Observational research dominates the biomedical…
Compared to What? Finding Controls for Case-Control Studies
Chapter Contents Aim of Controls 60 Where to Find Controls? 62 Controls From a Known Group 62 Random-Digit Dialling 63 Controls From an Unknown Group 64 Neighbourhood Controls 64 Hospital…
Case-Control Studies: Research in Reverse
Chapter Contents Basic Case-Control Study Design 52 Advantages and Disadvantages 53 Selection of Case and Control Groups 54 Case Group 54 Control Group 54 Measurement of Exposure Information 56 Control…
Cohort Studies: Marching Towards Outcomes
Chapter Contents Data Collection: Forwards and Backwards 40 Advantages of Cohort Studies 41 Disadvantages of Cohort Studies 42 What to Look for in Cohort Studies 43 Who is at Risk?…
Bias and Causal Associations in Observational Research
Chapter Contents Internal and External Validity 26 Bias 26 Selection Bias 27 Are the Groups Similar in all Important Respects? 27 Information Bias 28 Has Information Been Gathered in the…
Descriptive Studies: What They Can and Cannot Do
Chapter Contents The Descriptive Triad—Or Pentad? 14 Five ‘W’ Questions 14 Types of Descriptive Studies 15 Case Report 16 Case-Series Report 16 Cross-Sectional (Prevalence) Studies 16 Surveillance 17 Ecological Correlational…
An Overview of Clinical Research: The Lay of the Land
Chapter Contents A Taxonomy of Clinical Research 2 What Studies Can and Cannot Do 4 Descriptive Study 4 Cross-Sectional Study: A Snapshot in Time 4 Cohort Study: Looking Forward in…
