Question

1. Match the description with the type of study – descriptive, ecological, cross-sectional, cohort, case-control, experimental

A) Prevalence of carpel tunnel syndrome (CTS) was assessed in workers in textile factories and compared with a control population of airline pilots. The textile worker population had at least two-fold excess of CTS as compared to the control population = __________

B) A study compared 500 women having children with birth defects with a similar number of controls (women with healthy children). They found a statistically significant association between incomplete vaccine history and the occurrence of birth defects = __________

C) Fluorinated water was given to half of the students attending a school with a high prevalence of dental caries. A 1-year study then compared the incidence of dental caries in the students receiving fluorinated water to those not receiving the fluorinated water = __________

D) Analysis of stool samples taken in a hospital between 1985 and 1994 showed that 35% were positive for Ascaris(roundworm) infection, whereas analysis of samples taken between 2001 and 2010 indicated that only 1% were positive – the decrease was attributed to the discontinued use of wastewater for irrigating vegetables = __________

E) In a study to examine the health effects of routine exercise, individuals were recruited immediately after leaving a gym located in a shopping mall. Controls drawn from a population leaving the shopping mall who had not visited the gym. During the 1-year follow-up period, data were acquired on the health status of the two groups using questionnaire interviews= __________

F) The seasonal variation in the reported incidence of acute diarrhea in selected areas was examined in relation to rainfall and temperature records for the same areas. The investigators found that the incidence of diarrhea appeared to be inversely related to a sharp seasonal decrease in temperature. Rainfall did not appear to have a direct effect = __________

Answer 1

A)

Since here the prevalence of a study is being compared, thi is considered to be a prevalence or crosssectional study. It is not being carried over a period of time, but a speicifc point of time

B)

Descriptive study, where we study the population at large to analyse the case of brith defects in children. All the vaccine history, and types of defects are covered in this study in detail.

C)

This is clearly a scenario of experimental study where there is one group that is provided with the experiment and the other group that is not exposed to any experiment, and then the two groups are compared.

D)

This is a study over a period of time and is considered to be longitudinal hence it is a cohort study

E)

In this one group is the control group and other one is the actual group , hence it is an example of case-control study

F)

In this study so many factors are being anaylsed from the climate and environment, this study is a perfect example of ecological study