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To further illustrate, if one seeks to identify the etiologic
factors (e.g. causal factors) behind an outcome (e.g. an injury),
then each step in the epidemiologic framework provides new and
important information.
Descriptive studies are useful for identifying hypotheses to test
in analytic studies. Case-control studies are then usually
applied to evaluate if the hypothesized factor is related to the
outcome of interest. Subsequently, cohort or longitudinal
studies are applied to further define the importance of exposure
to the causal agent for the development of the outcome.
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