Text Readings:

Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health, Chapters 8 & 9.

A Study Guide to Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Chapters 12 & 13.

Web Readings:

Comparing Case-Control and Cohort Studies

Learning Objectives

Upon completing this class, students will be able to:

1. Distinguish between the various types of cohort studies, including open, fixed, closed, retrospective, prospective and ambi-directional designs.
2. Describe the key features of conducting cohort studies, including the selection of the exposed and unexposed populations; the sources of information on the exposure, outcomes and other key variables; approaches to follow-up; calculating person-time; and data analysis.
3. Discuss the strengths and limitations of cohort studies.
4. Discuss the traditional and modern views of case-control studies.
5. List the settings in which case-control studies are desirable.
6. Describe the key features of conducting case-control studies, including the selection of cases and controls, the sources of exposure information and data analysis.
7. Describe the key aspects of case-crossover studies.
8. Discuss the strengths and limitations of case-control studies.
9. Distinguish between experimental and observational studies.
10. Describe a case-control (retrospective) study.
11. Describe cohort (prospective) and cross-sectional studies.
12. Define "cohort," and recognize a cohort effect when interpreting cross-sectional data.

Assignment for Session Ten

First review the cohort and case-control definitions that can be accessed in the left column of the home page of the "Epiville" web site provided by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. For each of these definitions, complete the simulation through the "data analysis" portion. Do not answer the discussion questions for this Epiville Site. Complete exercises 1 and 3 at the end of Chapter 8 of Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health as well as questions 4 and 5 at the end of Chapter 9.