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As I have
said, analytic epidemiology falls outside the scope of this module. But I
want to mention that there are two major kinds of analytic research designs
in epidemiology: cohort and case-control. Randomized clinical trials and
other kinds of intervention studies are a special case of the cohort design,
whereby investigators manipulate subjects’ exposures, such as to different
kinds of therapies. This experimental approach contrasts with observational
epidemiology in which investigators do not seek to influence health outcomes
via exposure history; that is, exposures are not forced in observational
studies.
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