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Article: Case-Control Study
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
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CASE-CONTROL STUDY
The case-control study, a widely used method of observational epidemiological study, is an application of medical history-taking that aims to identify the cause of disease among a group of people, or the cause-effect relationships of a condition of interest. The underlying concept is simple. The past medical history, or history of exposure to a suspected risk or protective factor, of a group of persons with the disease or condition of interest (the cases) is compared with the past history of another group of persons (the controls) who resemble them in as many relevant respects as possible, but who do not have the disease or condition of interest. Statistical analysis ...