The Case-Control Study
- 15 January 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA)
- Vol. 247 (3), 326-331
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1982.03320280046028
Abstract
The retrospective case-control study is an important research strategy commonly encountered in the medical literature. A thoughtfully designed, carefully executed case-control study can be an invaluable source of clinical information, and physicians must often base important decisions about patient counseling and management on their interpretation of such studies. Unfortunately, the retrospective direction of case-control studies—looking "backwards" from an outcome event to an antecedent exposure—is accompanied by numerous methodological hazards. Careful attention must be paid to selection of appropriate study groups; definition and detection of the outcome event; definition and ascertainment of the exposure; assurance that the compared groups were equally susceptible to the outcome event at baseline; and careful statistical analysis. If systematic bias enters the research at any of these points, erroneous conclusions can result. Greater familiarity with the case-control method should enable clinicians to be more critically insightful when interpreting the results of published studies using this design format. (JAMA1982;247:326-331)Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Pregnancy, Delivery, and Neonatal Complications Among Autistic ChildrenArchives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 1980
- Retrospective studies: A review for the clinician: Sartwell PE: Ann Int Med 81: 381–386, 1974Journal of Chronic Diseases, 1979
- Clinical biostatistics: XX. The epidemiologic trohoc, the ablative risk ratio, and retrospective research: Feinstein AR: Clin Pharmacol Ther 14: 291–307, 1973Journal of Chronic Diseases, 1979
- The evolving case-control studyJournal of Chronic Diseases, 1979
- Methodologic standards and contradictory results in case-control researchAmerican Journal Of Medicine, 1979
- Alternative Analytic Methods for Case-Control Studies of Estrogens and Endometrial CancerNew England Journal of Medicine, 1978
- Problems of Spectrum and Bias in Evaluating the Efficacy of Diagnostic TestsNew England Journal of Medicine, 1978
- RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN USE OF RAUWOLFIA DERIVATIVES AND BREAST CANCER IN ENGLISH WOMENThe Lancet, 1974
- Risks and Benefits of the Use of Hormonal Pregnancy Test TabletsNature, 1972
- Prospective versus retrospective approach in the search for environmental causes of malformations.American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health, 1967