Term
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Definition
| unit of analysis is the group |
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Term
| ecologic comparison study |
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Definition
| examines exposure rates and disease rates among different groups over the same time period |
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Term
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Definition
| examines changes in exposure and changes in disease within the same community, country, or other aggregate unit |
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Term
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Definition
| observations made at the group level may not represent the exposure-disease relationship at the individual level |
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Term
| advantages of ecologic studies |
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Definition
| quick, simple and inexpensive; good for generating hypotheses for a disease of unknown etiology |
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Term
| disadvantages of ecologic studies |
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Definition
| ecologic fallacy; imprecise measurement of exposure and disease |
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Term
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Definition
| -unit of analysis is the individual; single period of observation; exposure and disease histories collected simultaneously |
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Term
| 3 uses of cross-sectional studies |
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Definition
| hypothesis generation, intervention planning, and estimation of the magnitude and distribution of the health problem |
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Term
| limitations of cross-sectional studies |
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Definition
| do not provide incidence data; cannot study low prevalence diseases; cannot determine temporality of exposure and disease |
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Term
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Definition
| identifies possible causes of disease by finding out how two groups differ with respect to exposure to some factor |
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Term
| advantages of case-control studies |
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Definition
| smaller sample sizes; quick and easy to complete, cost-effective; useful for studying rare diseases |
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Term
| disadvantages of case-control studies |
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Definition
| provide indirect estimate of risk; timing of exposure-disease relationship difficult to determine; representativeness of cases and controls often unknown |
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