Observational Studies And Routine Data Flashcards
What is a descriptive study?
Determines the distribution of a disease regarding the people, place and time
What types of data is used in a descriptive study?
Routine
Survey
Performance management
What is routine data?
Data that is collected for administrative purposes without any investigation question in mind
Name types of routine data
Health outcome data = death, hospital admissions Exposures = smoking Disease prevention = screening, vaccine Demographic data = census Geographic data = GP location
Advantages and disadvantages of routine data
Cheap, data already collected, past years available, wide range of data
May nor answer question, data from very case not collected, disease labelling differs between years
What are cross sectional studies used for?
Allow health care providers to allocate resources and plan
What is the difference between an episode and an admission?
Episode = time spent under the care of one consultant Admission = patients overall stay in hospital
What is a case-control study?
One group with disease and one without
Determine past exposure
Calculate odds of exposure if have the disease
Advantages and disadvantages of case control
Good for rare disease, quick, cost effective, many exposures can be investigated at once
Cannot calculate incidence, recall bias, selection bias, not good for rare exposures
What is a cohort study?
Group of people who are healthy
Split into 2 groups and given different treatments
What 2 types of cohort studies are there?
Prospective = follow up so rate of disease is measured
Retrospective = routine data collected, determine relationship between exposure and outcome
Advantages and disadvantages of cohort studies
Look at multiple outcomes, calculate incidence, minimise bias
Not good for rare disease, expensive, time consuming, lack of follow up = bias
What is the standardised mortality ratio?
Number of observed deaths/ number of expected deaths
Can be adjusted for age and sex
Then compared against standard population
