200126P - CLASSIFICATION OF STUDY DESIGN

Presented at CRC course KFMC  on January 26, 2020 11-12am by Prof Omar Hasan Kasule Sr Professor of Epidemiology and Bioethics, King Fahad Medical City. 

STEPS OF AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

• Identifying and describing a problem

• Using the scientific method to formulate and test hypotheses

• Interpreting findings. 

TWO TYPES OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES

• Observational: get information on disease and causes without interfering with nature

• Experimental: manipulate the causes artificially to see effect on disease

SOURCES OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INFORMATION FROM EXISTING DATA

• Census

• Medical facilities: government and private sector

• Health surveys

• Vital statistics

SOURCES OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INFORMATION FROM OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES

• Observational studies allow nature to take its course and just record the occurrences of disease

• Observational studies describe the what, where, when, and why of a disease. 

SOURCES OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA FROM EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

• Experimental studies are natural or true experiments

• They involve deliberate human action or intervention whose outcome is then observed. 

• They have the advantage of controlled conditions

• They have ethical problems of experimenting on humans.. 

EXAMPLE OF RESEARCH BASED ON EXISTING DATA

EXAMPLE OF RESEARCH BASED ON OBSERVATIONAL DATA

EXAMPLE OFN RESEARCH BASED ON EXPERIMENTATION