Red Sea University

Study Designs
Farah Isse Mumin
 Definition: A study design is a specific plan or
protocol for conducting the study, which
Study design allows the investigator to translate the
conceptual hypothesis into an operational
one.
Types Study Designs

?
 Types Study Designs
• Descriptive studies
• describe occurrence of outcome

• Analytic studies
• describe association between exposure and outcome

Exposure Disease
Basic Questions in Analytic sudies
e.g disease

• Look to link exposure and disease

• What is the exposure?
• Who are the exposed?
• What are the potential health effects?
• What approach will you take to study the relationship between
exposure and effect?
Study Designs

Descriptive Analytic
Case report Experiments Cohort study

Case series Case-Control

study
Descriptive
studies Cross-sectional
study
Type according to timeframe of Studies
• Prospective Study - looks forward, looks to the
future, examines future events, follows a condition,
concern or disease into the future

time
Study begins here
• Retrospective Study - “to look back”, looks back in
time to study events that have already occurred

time
Study begins here
Study Design Sequence

Hypothesis formation
Descriptive
Case reports Case series
surveys

Analytic Animal Lab

studies study study
Clinical
Hypothesis testing
trials

Case- Cross-
Cohort
control sectional
 Example: How many
students in Red Sea
University experienced
Descriptive mental health crisis in
Studies 2023?”

• Detection of individual case

What (How much): occurred
Who: animals or humans
When: time
Where: place
• Detection of outbreaks
• Measuring the impact of disease
• Understand the nature of a
disease
• Understand the way that disease
spreads and is distributed
Descriptive
epidemiology

Basic Measures and Tools of Descriptive studies

• Generate hypotheses and ideas for • Data collection
further research
• classification / organization
• Generates initial insights of the
problem • summarizing
• Support planning activities for any • presentation
intervention
 One case of unusual
Case Report
findings

Multiple cases of
Case Series findings

Descriptive survey Population-based

cases with denominator

Occasionally case reports or case series become very important…

Famous Examples:

A new unknown respiratory illness cases in Wuhan city, China (what

became later on COVID19)
Analytical Studies

HOW: ADJUST
WHY: PREVENT
POLICY AND
AND CONTROL
RESPONSE
Analytic Studies

Attempt to establish a You are doing an analytic

causal link between a study if you have any of
predictor/risk factor and the following words in
an outcome. your research question:

greater than, less than,

causes, leads to, compared
with, more likely than,
associated with, related to,
similar to, correlated with
 ‘’ The prevalence of COVID19 and
its associated risk factors in
Bosaso city, Puntland State of
Somalia’’

Analytic study
Study Designs -
Analytic : two parts Very common to our context

Experimental Observational
Studies Studies

Randomized
Community Cross-
controlled Cohort Case-control
trials sectional
clinical trials
 Experimental Studies

treatment and clinical trials are the

exposures occur in a planned research most well known
“controlled” designs experimental
environment design.

Clinical trials use Community trials

randomly assigned use nonrandom
data. data
 non-experimental

observational because there is no

individual intervention
Observational
Studies treatment and exposures occur in a “non-
controlled” environment

individuals can be observed prospectively,

retrospectively, or currently
Cross-sectional
studies

• An “observational” design
that surveys exposures and
disease status at a single time
point in time (a cross-
Study only exists at this point in time
section of the population)
Cross-sectional Design
factor present
No Disease
factor absent
Study
population
factor present
Disease
factor absent

time
Study only exists at this point in time
 Cross-sectional
Studies
• Often used to study conditions that
are relatively frequent with long
duration of expression (nonfatal,
chronic conditions)
• It measures prevalence, not
incidence of disease
• Example: community surveys
• Not suitable for studying rare or
highly fatal diseases or a disease with
short duration of expression
Cross-sectional studies
• Disadvantages
• Weakest observational design, (it measures prevalence, not
incidence of disease). Prevalent cases are survivors
• The temporal sequence of exposure and effect may be difficult or
impossible to determine
• Usually don’t know when disease occurred

• Rare events a problem. Quickly emerging diseases a problem

 Cross-sectional Study:
• Descriptive value:
• How many Red Sea University medical students
drink Red Bull?
• What is the age and sex distribution of Red Sea
University medical students who drink Red
Bull?
• Analytic value:
• Is there an association between regular Red
Bull consumption and test scores among Red
Sea University med students?
More analytics
Cases: Disease
Controls: No disease
• Case-Control Studies
• an “observational” design comparing
exposures in disease cases vs. healthy
controls from same population
• exposure data collected retrospectively
• most feasible design where disease
outcomes are rare
 factor present
Cases
(disease)

Case-Control Design
factor absent
Study
population
factor present Controls
(no disease)
factor absent
present
past

time

Study begins here

 • Strengths
• Less expensive and less time
Case- consuming
• Efficient for studying rare
Control diseases
Study • Limitations
• Inappropriate when disease
outcome for a specific
exposure is not known at start
of study
• Exposure measurements
taken after disease
occurrence
 • Cohort Studies
• an “observational” design
comparing individuals with a
known risk factor or exposure
with others without the risk
factor or exposure
Cohort studies • looking for a difference in the
risk (incidence) of a disease
over time
• best observational design
• data usually collected
prospectively
 disease
Factor
Study present no disease
population
free of
disease
Cohort Design
disease Factor
absent
no disease
present
future

time
Study begins here
Cohort Study
Strengths

• Exposure status determined before disease detection

• Subjects selected before disease detection
• Can study several outcomes for each exposure

Limitations

• Expensive and time-consuming

• Inefficient for rare diseases or diseases with long latency
• Loss to follow-up
 Develop
Descriptive Studies

Increasing Knowledge generation

hypothesis

Investigate it’s
Case-control Studies relationship to
outcomes

Define it’s meaning

Cohort Studies
with exposures

Test link
Clinical trials experimentally