Question

if you were the state epidemiologist and it was suspected that smoke from the local toy factory was connected to adverse health outcomes among the town’s residents, what type of cohort study would you conduct to further investigate this concern? Why? What limitations exist in your choice of study? Remember to cite sources where necessary.

Answer 1

1) among the people residing there I'll ask the willing ones, who will be the part of study,(exposed group)

And from some another area I'll ask the people willing for the study (non-exposed)

During this selection we need to take care about randomization in selection of people, in gender as well as age group,

After taking a follow up for 3)4 years, there will be people among exposed group, having disease, and non- diseased as well,

Similar is among the people of non exposed group.

After that we will check for the parameters like

Relative risk(i-e/i-ne)

Attributable risk (i-e. -. i-ne)/i-e

Population attributable risk

i-e) incidence in exposed

i-ne) incidence in non exposed

These parameters will help in determining whether, this factory is harmful or not

We did this cohort study because it's only measure we can look upon, for assessing whether it is harmful or not otherwise there is no another parameter to measure

2) limitations

Ethical issues ( someone having symptoms,but is not being treated)

Some may leave the study in between

More time required

More money required

Hawthorn bias