what does case control study mean

by Dr. Reggie Greenfelder Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Case Control Study

Definition. A study that compares patients who have a disease or outcome of interest (cases) with patients who do not have the disease or outcome (controls), and looks back retrospectively ...
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Full Answer

What are examples of case control studies?

When the disease or outcome being studied is rare.
When the disease or outcome has a long induction and latent period (i.e., a long time between exposure and the eventual causal manifestation of disease).
When exposure data is difficult or expensive to obtain.
When the study population is dynamic.

What is a case in a case control study?

Neonates admitted with sepsis and died were considered as cases and neonates admitted with sepsis and survived (discharged alive) as controls. Cases were selected by taking the deaths of neonates consecutively among those neonates admitted with the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.

What is the difference between case control and cohort study?

Weaknesses of Case-Control Studies:

Inefficient for rare exposures;
Usually unable to determine prevalence or the incidence in the population;
More predisposed to bias, especially selection, and recall biases.

What are case control studies?

Case Study - Verizon
Case Study - Singtel
Case Study - T-Systems

What is meant by case-control study?

Listen to pronunciation. (kays-kun-TROLE STUH-dee) A study that compares two groups of people: those with the disease or condition under study (cases) and a very similar group of people who do not have the disease or condition (controls).

How do case control studies work?

In a case-control study, participants are selected for the study based on their outcome status. Thus, some participants have the outcome of interest (referred to as cases), whereas others do not have the outcome of interest (referred to as controls). The investigator then assesses the exposure in both these groups.

What are the types of case control studies?

The two types of case-control studies are:Non-matched case-control study: this is the simplest form. Find a person with the disease and enroll them in the study. ... Matched case-control: Find a person with the disease and enroll them in the study.

Is a case study the same as a case-control study?

A case report is the description of the clinical story of a single patient, whereas a case-control study compares 2 groups of participants differing in outcome in order to determine if a suspected exposure in their past caused that difference.

What makes a good case-control study?

Use of newly diagnosed over prevalent cases is preferable, as the latter may alter risk estimates and complicate the interpretation of findings. Controls should be selected from the source population from which cases arose. Potential confounding should be addressed both in studies of environmental and genetic factors.

What are the characteristics of a case-control study?

A major characteristic of case-control studies is that data on potential risk factors are collected retrospectively and as a result may give rise to bias. This is a particular problem associated with case-control studies and therefore needs to be carefully considered during the design and conduct of the study.

How many groups are in a case-control study?

A case-control study is a type of observational study where researchers analyze two groups of people (cases and controls) to look at factors associated with particular diseases or outcomes.

Is case-control study quantitative or qualitative?

quantitativeIn a health care context, randomised controlled trials are quantitative in nature, as are case-control and cohort studies. Surveys (questionnaires) are usually quantitative .

Benefits of Case-Control Studies

Case-control studies are relatively quick and simple studies. They frequently use existing patient data, and the experimenters form the groups after the outcomes are known. Researchers do not conduct an experiment. Instead, they look for differences between the case and control groups that are potential risk factors for the condition.

Limitations of Case-Control Studies

Because case-control studies are observational, they cannot establish causality and provide lower quality evidence than other experimental designs, such as randomized controlled trials.

Use Matching to Control Confounders

Because case-control studies are observational studies, they are particularly vulnerable to confounding variables. A confounder correlates with both the risk factor and the outcome variable.

Statistical Analysis of Case-Control Studies

Researchers frequently include two controls for each case to increase statistical power for case-control studies. Adding even more controls per case provides few statistical benefits, so studies usually do not use more than a 2:1 control to case ratio.

Example Odds Ratio in a Case-Control Study

The Kent County Health Department in Michigan conducted a case-control study in 2005 for a company lunch that produced an outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea. Out of multiple lunch ingredients, researchers found the following exposure rates for lettuce consumption.

What is case control study?

case-control study, in epidemiology, observational (non experimental) study design used to ascertain information on differences in suspected exposures and outcomes between individuals with a disease of interest (cases) and comparable individuals who do not have the disease (controls). Analysis

Why are case control studies beneficial?

Case-control studies are advantageous because they require smaller sample sizes and thus fewer resources and less time than other observational studies. The case-control design also is the most practical option for studying exposure related to rare diseases.

When was case control first used?

The case-control study was first used in its modern form in 1926 . It grew in popularity in the 1950s following the publication of several seminalcase-control studies that established a link between smoking and lung cancer.

What is the branch of medical science that studies the distribution of disease in human populations?

Epidemiology, branch of medical science that studies the distribution of disease in human populations and the factors determining that distribution, chiefly by the use of statistics. Unlike other medical disciplines, epidemiology concerns itself with groups of people rather than individual patients and is frequently retrospective, or historical, in nature. It…

Who conducted a nested case-control study looking at the use of bisphosphonates for the prevention of?

Li and coinvestigators conducted a nested case-control study looking at the use of bisphosphonates for the prevention of CBC.

What is the epidemiologic method?

Epidemiologic method that begins by identifying people with a disease or condition of interest and compares their past history of exposure to identified or suspected risk factors with the past history of similar exposures among those who resemble the cases but do not have the disease or condition of interest.

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Definitions & Translations

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Overview

A case–control study (also known as case–referent study) is a type of observational study in which two existing groups differing in outcome are identified and compared on the basis of some supposed causal attribute. Case–control studies are often used to identify factors that may contribute to a medical condition by comparing subjects who have that condition/disease (th…

Definition

The case–control is a type of epidemiological observational study. An observational study is a study in which subjects are not randomized to the exposed or unexposed groups, rather the subjects are observed in order to determine both their exposure and their outcome status and the exposure status is thus not determined by the researcher.
Porta's Dictionary of Epidemiology defines the case–control study as: an observational epidemi…

Strengths and weaknesses

Case–control studies are a relatively inexpensive and frequently used type of epidemiological study that can be carried out by small teams or individual researchers in single facilities in a way that more structured experimental studies often cannot be. They have pointed the way to a number of important discoveries and advances. The case–control study design is often used in the study of rare diseases or as a preliminary study where little is known about the association b…

Examples

One of the most significant triumphs of the case–control study was the demonstration of the link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer, by Richard Doll and Bradford Hill. They showed a statistically significant association in a large case–control study. Opponents argued for many years that this type of study cannot prove causation, but the eventual results of cohort studies confirmed the causal link which the case–control studies suggested, and it is now accepted tha…

Analysis

Case–control studies were initially analyzed by testing whether or not there were significant differences between the proportion of exposed subjects among cases and controls. Subsequently, Cornfield pointed out that, when the disease outcome of interest is rare, the odds ratio of exposure can be used to estimate the relative risk (see rare disease assumption). The validity of the odds ratio depends highly on the nature of the disease studied, on the sampling m…

Impact on longevity and public health

Tetlock and Gardner claimed that the contributions of medical science to increasing human longevity and public health were negligible, and too often negative, until Scottish physician Archie Cochrane was able to convince the medical establishment to adopt randomized control trials after World War II.