OBSERVATIONAL STUDY DESIGN

Widana Primaningtyas
Fakultas KedokteranUNS
 DEFINITION
“ a type of study in which individuals are
observed or certain outcomes are measured;
no attempt is made to affect the outcome.”
(NIH-NCI)

• An alternatives of the experimental study ( sometimes called a natural experiment)

• Attempt to understand cause and effect relationships
• The researcher is not able to control how subjects are assigned to groups and or which
treatments each group receives
 TYPES
Observational uncontrolled study
Observation only in one group of subject (cross-
sectional/ survey)
No control group
What(s) the problem then?

Observational controlled study

Observation in different group of subject
Major classification: cohort (presence of exposure) and
case-control studies (absence or presence of a disease)
 COHORT STUDY
• A research study tat compares a particular
outcome in a groups of individuals who are alike
in many ways but differ by a certain
characteristic.
• A study in which people are exposed to some
factor of interest at the start of the study and
then followed over a time period sufficent to
allow any effects of that exposure to occur and be
measured.
• Framingham study... Anyone know about it?
 CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
• An oservational study that involves the
analysis of data collected from a population,
or a representative subset, at one specific
point in time.
• This study looks at population at a single point
in time. It examines the relationship between
exposure and outcome prevalence in a
defined population without regard to changes
over time
• Classic type: survey
• The data being collected once; quick and
inexpensive
• Good to find the prevalence of a particular
case or disease; could not tell us anything
about the cause or the best treatment might
be
 CASE-CONTROL STUDY
• A study that compares two groups of people;
those with the disease or condition under study
(cases) and a very similar group of people who do
not have the disease or condition.
• A study in which a group of people who have a
particular disease are observed to see wether
their past exposures to some factors differ from
those of a similar group who don’t have the
disease.
• Typically examines multiple exposures in
relation to an outcome; subjects are defined
as cases and controls; and the exposure
historiees are compared
• Generally researchers enroll two to four times
more controls than cases.
• Usually involve smaller numbers of people
• Could be a either population based- all the
cases and controls are randomly selected from
same defined geographical population- or
hospital based- all the cases and controls are
selected from people attending a particular
hospital.
• Whis one is better; hospital based or
population based? Why?
Case control study : using Odds Ratio (positive
disease ratio/ negative disease ratio)  ratio
p/q

Cohort study : using Relative Risk (positive risk

factor proportion/ negative risk factor
proportion)  ratio p1/p2