Abstract
Special challenges are involved when conducting primary case–control, cohort and related observational studies in older adults. While the challenges are not unique, there are a host of features that dominate such studies, including the recruitment of older adults into research studies, the ethical hurdles of approaching and gaining consent from participants who may have cognitive impairment, the presence of multi-morbidity, difficulties in data collection such as obtaining interviews from primary and proxy respondents, complexity in interpreting clinical and research biomarkers, different approaches to prevention and treatment in usual clinical care, and altered and complex clinical outcomes. Each of these hurdles, and others, require special design and analytic features when conducting observational research in older adults. Fortunately, some solutions and approaches are available.
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Wallace, R.B. (2012). Conducting Case-Control and Cohort Studies in Older Adults. In: Newman, A., Cauley, J. (eds) The Epidemiology of Aging. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5061-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5061-6_2
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