ANALYTIC EPIDEMIOLOGY

1. ANALYTIC
EPIDEMIOLOGY
● SECTION
7
Lesson 1: Introduction to
Epidemiology

2. REVIEW
Descriptive
Epidemiology
• Identifies patterns among cases and in populations by time,
place, and person.
• Epidemiologists can use descriptive epidemiology to
generate hypotheses.
• Rarely to test those hypotheses.

3. ANALYTIC
EPIDEMIOLOGY
Analytic Epidemiology
• Concerned with the search for causes and effects, or the
why and the how.
• The key feature of analytic epidemiology is a comparison
group.
• Quantify the association between exposures and outcomes
and to test hypotheses about causal relationships.

4. ANALYTIC
EPIDEMIOLOGY
(Example)
Case-
patients
Time,
Place,
Person
Problem
Questio
n
Food with
Salsa
Hepatitis
A
Outbreak
Control
Group
94% Case-
patients
34% Control
Group
Further
Investigation
Final source:
green onions
FDA Preventive
Advisory
• This action was in direct response to the convincing results of the
analytic epidemiology, which compared the exposure history of case-
patients with that of an appropriate comparison group.
Source:
Popular
foods

5. FACTORS/
CHARACTERIS
TIC OF HOST
• Demographic factor such as age, race,
or sex;
• Constitutional factor such as blood
group or immune status;
• Behavior or act such as smoking or
having eaten salsa; or
• Circumstance such as living near a
toxic waste site.
may be
a:
Identifying factors associated with
disease help health officials
appropriately target public health
prevention and control activities. It also
guides additional research into the
causes of disease.

6. EPIDEMIOLOGI
CSTUDIES
2 Categories of
Epidemilogic
Studies
• Experimental
• Observational

7. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES
 In an experimental study, the investigator determines
through a controlled process the exposure for each
individual (clinical trial) or community (community trial), and
then tracks the individuals or communities over time to
detect the effects of the exposure.
 Experimental studies are ones where researchers introduce
an intervention and study the effects.
 Experimental studies are usually randomized, meaning the

8. EXAMPLES:
 In a clinical trial of a new vaccine, the
investigator may randomly assign some of
the participants to receive the new vaccine,
while others receive a placebo shot. The
investigator then tracks all participants,
observes who gets the disease that the new
vaccine is intended to prevent, and compares
the two groups (new vaccine vs. placebo) to
see whether the vaccine group has a lower

9.  In a trial to prevent the onset of diabetes
among high-risk individuals, investigators
randomly assigned enrollees to one of three
groups — placebo, an anti-diabetes drug, or
lifestyle intervention. At the end of the follow-
up period, investigators found the lowest
incidence of diabetes in the lifestyle
intervention group, the next lowest in the anti-
diabetic drug group, and the highest in the
placebo group.

10. Observational
studies
• Are ones where researchers observe the effect of a
risk factor, diagnostic test, treatment or other
intervention without trying to change who is or isn't
exposed to it
• In an observational study, the epidemiologist simply
observes the exposure and disease status of each
study participant.

11. Types of
Observation
al studies
• Cohort Study
• Case-Control Study
• Cross-Sectional
Study

12. • In a cohort study the epidemiologist records whether
each study participant is exposed or not, and then
tracks the participants to see if they develop the
disease of interest.
• in a cohort study, the investigator observes rather
than determines the participants’ exposure status.
After a period of time, the investigator compares the
disease rate in the exposed group with the disease
rate in the unexposed group.
Cohort Study

13. Two Types of cohort studies
• Prospective Cohort Study
• Retrospective Cohort Study

15. RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY
• An alternative type of cohort study. This studies are a
type of observational research in which the investigator
looks back in time at archived or self-report data to
examine whether the risk of disease was different
between exposed and non-exposed patients.
• Studies are commonly used in investigations of
disease in groups of easily identified people such as
workers at a particular factory.

16. • Retrospective studies are conceived after some people have
already developed the outcomes of interest. The
investigators jump back in time to identify a cohort of
individuals at a point in time before they had developed the
outcomes of interest.

17. Suppose investigators wanted to
test the hypothesis that working
with the chemicals involved in
tire manufacturing increase the
risk of death. Since this is a fairy
rare exposure, it would be
advantegeous to use a special
exposure cohort such as
employees of a large tire
manufacturing factory and
conduct retrospective cohort
Example

18. CASE-CONTROL
STUDY

19. What is Case – Control
Study?
• In a case-control study, investigators start
by enrolling a group of people with
disease (at CDC such persons are called
case-patients rather than cases, because
case refers to occurrence of disease, not
a person).
• Thus, some participants have the
outcome of interest (referred to as
cases).
• As a comparison group, the investigator
then enrolls a group of people without
disease (controls).
• Case-control studies trace backwards

20. • The control group provides an estimate of
the baseline or expected amount of
exposure in that population.
• If the amount of exposure among the case
group is substantially higher than the
amount you would expect based on the
control group, then illness is said to be
associated with that exposure.
• The study of hepatitis A traced to green
onions, described above, is an example of
a case-control study.
• The key in a case-control study is to
identify an appropriate control group,
comparable to the case group in most
respects, in order to provide a reasonable
estimate of the baseline or expected
exposure.

21.  Retrospective study
 Case control studies are Quicker and Cheaper
• Use data that’s collected; Medical records, Employment records,
Interviews and Surveys
 Useful in situation that may be unethical
 Investigates multiple exposures for single outcomes
 Explore many exposures associated with an outcome
• Ask cases & controls what they eat
• Ask about multiple exposure
 Can have recall bias & selection bias reduced by
• Verifying written records , Choosing recent exposures, Choosing
cases & controls based solely on whether or not they have the
Outcome.

22. • To determine whether or not an
association exists between a disease and
a particular risk factor.
• To start with a group of people with
disease and work back to see whether a
possible risk factor may be the cause.
• It may be the first step in testing a
hypothesis. If positive, it can then be
tested in a cohort study.
• Useful in situation that may be unethical

23. Five steps in conducting a
case-control study
1. Define a study population (source of cases
and controls)
2. Define and select cases
3. Define and select controls
4. Measure exposure
5. Estimate disease risk associated with
exposure

24. Cross-Sectional Study
• In this third type of observational study, a sample of
persons from a population is enrolled and their
exposures and health outcomes are measured
simultaneously.
• tends to assess the presence (prevalence) of the
health outcome at that point of time without regard to
duration.
• For example, in a cross-sectional study of diabetes,
some of the enrollees with diabetes may have lived

25. Summary
• the purpose of an analytic study in epidemiology is to
identify and quantify the relationship between an exposure
and a health outcome.
• In an experimental study, the investigator determines the
exposure for the study subjects; in an observational study,
the subjects are exposed under more natural conditions.
• In an observational cohort study, subjects are enrolled or
grouped on the basis of their exposure, then are followed to
document occurrence of disease.

26. • In an observational case-control
study, subjects are enrolled
according to whether they have the
disease or not, then are questioned
or tested to determine their prior
exposure.
• Cross-sectional studies measure
exposure and disease status at the
same time, and are better suited to
descriptive epidemiology than

27. THANK YOU
!!!