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Measuring Disease Occurrence in Epidemiology Study Guide

This guide explains key concepts in analytical epidemiology, focusing on observational study designs like cohort and case-control studies. It details the challenge of confounding, methods for matching to control for confounders, and the importance of internal and external validity in research. The guide also introduces the odds ratio as a statistical measure used in case-control studies.

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Introduction to Epidemiological Study Designs

Analytical Epidemiology Study Designs and Matching

This content discusses case-crossover design, matching strategies, and methods to control for confounding in observational epidemiology.

  • Case-crossover design
  • Matching
  • Individual matching
  • Frequency matching
  • Minimum Euclidean distance measure method
  • Confounding
  • Residual confounding
  • Overmatching
  • Internal validity
  • External validity
  • Case-control studies
  • Cohort studies
  • Conditional logistic regression
  • Odds ratio

Introduction to Epidemiological Study Designs

An introduction to epidemiology covering the distribution and determinants of health-related states, descriptive versus analytic epidemiology, and various study designs.

  • Epidemiology
  • Descriptive epidemiology
  • Analytic epidemiology
  • Randomization
  • Observational studies
  • Case-control studies
  • Cohort studies
  • Incidence
  • Nested case-control studies
  • Case-crossover studies
  • Matching
  • Ecological studies
  • Exposures
  • Social epidemiology

Observational and Experimental Study Designs

Comparison of randomized controlled trials and observational studies including cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional designs.

  • Randomized controlled trial
  • Observational studies
  • Cohort study
  • Case-control study
  • Cross-sectional study
  • Prospective cohort studies
  • Retrospective cohort studies
  • Incidence calculation
  • Censored observations
  • Non-informative censoring
  • Relative risk

Case-Control and Cross-Sectional Study Methods

This lecture examines case-control studies, including nested case-control and case-cohort designs, alongside cross-sectional studies to compare exposure distributions and disease prevalence.

  • Prospective versus Retrospective Studies
  • Case-control studies
  • Case-based case-control study
  • Source population
  • Selection bias
  • Population controls
  • Random-digit dialing
  • Hospital based controls
  • Odds ratio
  • Nested case-control study
  • Incidence density sampling
  • Risk set sampling
  • Case-cohort study
  • Cross-sectional studies
  • Prevalence of disease

Measuring Disease Occurrence and Incidence

Measuring Disease Occurrence in Epidemiology

This text discusses measuring disease occurrence through absolute measures of outcome frequency including incidence and prevalence.

  • discrete variables
  • continuous variables
  • incidence
  • prevalence
  • point prevalence
  • period prevalence
  • cumulative prevalence
  • cumulative incidence
  • incidence proportion
  • censored observations
  • life table
  • odds ratio

Measuring Disease Occurrence and Survival Analysis

This text explains methods for calculating cumulative probability of an event and cumulative probability of survival using actuarial life table and Kaplan-Meier approaches.

  • cumulative probability of the event
  • cumulative probability of survival
  • conditional probabilities
  • actuarial life table method
  • censored observation
  • person-time
  • independence between censoring and survival
  • uniformity of events and losses

Observational Study Designs in Epidemiology

Basic Observational Study Designs in Epidemiology

This text reviews nonexperimental study designs based on individuals as observation units, including cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies.

  • Cohort study
  • Prospective study
  • Nonconcurrent cohort study
  • Historical cohort study
  • Case-control study
  • Case-based case-control study
  • Nested case-control study
  • Case-cohort study
  • Cross-sectional study
  • Incidence density sampling
  • Risk-set sampling
  • Relative risk
  • Exposure odds ratio
  • Selection bias
  • Recall bias
  • Survival bias
  • Losses to follow-up
  • Censored observations

Ecologic Studies and Ecologic Fallacy

Ecologic studies examine associations between aggregate measures of exposure and disease or mortality using populations as observation units.

  • Ecologic studies
  • Ecologic fallacy
  • Aggregation bias
  • Cross-level inference
  • Construct validity
  • Multilevel analyses
  • Aggregate measures
  • Individual-level data
  • Etiologic hypotheses

Matching and Ecological Studies in Epidemiology

Techniques including matching in case-control studies and ecological studies using aggregate measures to observe associations between variables.

  • Matching
  • Case-control studies
  • Confounding
  • Individual matching
  • Frequency matching
  • Propensity score matching
  • Ecological studies
  • Aggregate measures
  • Environmental measures
  • Ecologic fallacy

Case-Crossover Studies and Risk Assessment

Case-crossover studies compare exposure status at disease onset with exposure status during a reference period in the same individual to study acute brief exposure.

  • Case-crossover studies
  • Exposure status
  • Disease onset
  • Reference period
  • Acute brief exposure
  • Relative risk
  • Confidence interval
  • Epidemiologic method

Censoring Reasons and Independence Assumptions

Measuring Disease Occurrence and Censoring Assumptions

This text examines the relationship between reasons for censoring and the assumption of independence between censoring and survival in survival analysis.

  • survival analysis
  • cumulative incidence estimate
  • assumption of independence between censoring and survival
  • administrative censoring
  • cause-specific incidence
  • migration
  • refusal to follow up contacts
  • deaths from other causes
  • bias

Measuring Associations in Case-Control Studies

Measuring Associations in Case-Control Studies

This text discusses measuring associations between exposures and outcomes using the odds ratio in case-control studies.

  • odds ratio of exposure
  • odds ratio of disease
  • case-control study
  • sampling fractions
  • cross-products ratio
  • unbiased estimates
  • relative risk

Assessing the Strength of Associations

This text examines methods for assessing the strength of associations between risk factors and outcomes using relative risk and equivalent measures.

  • relative risk
  • cross-sectional association
  • passive smoking
  • atherosclerosis
  • intimal-medial thickness
  • LDL equivalent
  • risk factor
  • systolic blood pressure

Incidence Rates and Person-Time Analysis

Measuring Disease Occurrence and Incidence Density

This text explains how to express the rate at which events occur in a population at risk using person-time units and average population estimates.

  • incidence rate
  • incidence density
  • person-time
  • person-years
  • average population
  • aggregate data
  • individual data
  • censored individuals
  • follow-up period
  • population at risk

Measuring Disease Occurrence and Prevalence

This text discusses the calculation of incidence rates, person-time, cumulative incidence, and prevalence in epidemiological studies.

  • incidence rate
  • cumulative incidence
  • person-time
  • incidence density
  • hazard rate
  • prevalence
  • point prevalence
  • period prevalence
  • stratification
  • time-dependent covariates
  • censoring
  • Lexis diagram

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