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Prospective Studies

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Book cover An Introduction to Epidemiology

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Prospective studies require an approach very different from that for case-control studies and serve as a more direct test of a specific hypothesis on aetiology. Also, these studies require considerably more investment of resources than case-control studies and they would mainly be carried out when case-control studies have produced conflicting results, or where the topic is of considerable importance to the health of the general population. There are a number of developments of the technique, some of which require extremely complex organisation, such as longitudinal (cohort) studies. However, routine data, combined with ad hoc surveys or linked to other data, can provide the high efficiency associated with prospective studies relatively cheaply and speedily. Such an approach requires extremely careful consideration and will be discussed in section 6.4

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, UK

    Michael Alderson (Chief Medical Statistician)

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  1. Michael Alderson
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© 1983 Michael Alderson

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Alderson, M. (1983). Prospective Studies. In: An Introduction to Epidemiology. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17291-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17291-7_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-35015-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17291-7

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