Case Control Studies

Question 1

What are case control studies?

Answer 1

Observational studies allowing researchers to be a passive observer of natural events occurring in individuals with disease/condition of interest who are compared to people who do not have the condition of interest

Question 2

Group assignments are based on _____

Answer 2

disease status

Question 3

Case control studies are beneficial for ____ disease or investigating an outbreak

Answer 3

rare

Question 4

When are three situations to use case-control design?

Answer 4

When we are unable to force group allocation due to unethical or unfeasible reasons

When resources are limited due to money, time or subjects.

The disease of interest is rare in occurence

Question 5

Case control studies are conducted in a (retrospective/prospective) fashion.

Answer 5

Retrospective

Question 6

What are the strengths of case control studies?

Answer 6

Good for assessing multiple exposures of one outcome

Useful for rare diseases

Useful in determining associations

Less expensive than interventional and prospective

Useful when ethical issues limit interventional studies

Useful when disease has a long induction/latent period

Question 7

What are some weaknesses of case controls studies?

Answer 7

Can’t demonstrate causation

Possible impacted by untested confounders

Retrospective

Susceptible to biases (selection/recall bias)

Limited by available data due to retrospective nature

Question 8

What is a Nested Case Control study?

Answer 8

A subsequent study that is prospectively for a different study. Can be used to evaluate other exposures. Groups are allocated from previous studies into this one via “nesting.”