SOURCES OF CASES & CONTROL IN AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY

SOURCES OF CASES IN AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY

Cases in an epidemiological study can be sourced in any of the following ways:

• Data from hospital registries, clinics and disease screening records.

• All cases diagnosed in a particular hospital department at a given time.

• All cases diagnosed in the community/population.

• All cases diagnosed in all hospitals (public or private).

• All cases diagnosed in a sample or fraction of the population/community.

SOURCES OF CONTROLS IN AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY

Controls in an epidemiological study can be sourced in any of the following ways:

• Samples of patients who do not have the disease under study in all hospitals.

• Samples from members of the general community/population who are at risk for the disease as the cases.

• Relations, spouses, children or companions of the cases.

• Samples of patients in the same hospital where cases were obtained from and, who do not have the disease.

• Non-cases in a sample of the community/population. 

References

Aschengrau A and Seage G.R (2013). Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health. Third edition. Jones and Bartleh Learning,

Aschengrau, A., & G. R. Seage III. (2009). Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health.  Boston:  Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Bonita R., Beaglehole R., Kjellström T (2006). Basic epidemiology.  2^nd edition. World Health Organization. Pp. 1-226.

Porta M (2008). A dictionary of epidemiology. 5^th edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rothman K.J and Greenland S (1998). Modern epidemiology, 2^nd edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven. 

Rothman K.J, Greenland S and Lash T.L (2011). Modern Epidemiology. Third edition. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia, PA, USA.