Case–Control Study

We review design options for case–control studies and considerations for determining whether a case–control or cohort study is more appropriate for a given purpose. One issue is exposure data quality, which may be poorer in a case–control study than in a cohort study, and subject to differential error (recall bias). This must be weighed against the cost efficiencies and other advantages of the case–control design. We describe case and control selection, including the use of hospital-based controls (secondary base studies) in which controls are not sampled from the population base that gave rise to cases. Other design options, including matching and the use of two-phase studies are described, as well as approaches to analysis. It is pointed out that not only odds ratios, but also absolute risks, are estimable from population-based case–control studies. Keywords: case–control study; cohort study; odds ratio; hospital-based case–control study; measurement error; confounding; selection bias; absolute risk

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