Hi, everyone, and welcome to Module 4
on observational study design.
In this module and the next two modules,
we're going to be talking
about the different types of epidemiological studies.
EPI studies are the way
that we gather the data that we need
in order to do public health research
and in order to understand how diseases are transmitting
and spreading in different populations.
We're starting off in this module
with observational study design,
but there are a number of different designs
that are all similar but all a little bit different.
I've included a Study Design Cheat Sheet
in your learning materials below, and hopefully,
this will help you keep them mentally straight.
We're talking about cross-sectional
and case control studies,
among others, in this module,
and these studies rely on measures of prevalence.
If you remember back to Module 2,
prevalence is a measure of existing disease
or the burden of disease in the community or population.
In Module 5, we'll talk about cohort studies
and randomized controlled trials,
which use incidents or measures of new disease.
So you can see that we're bringing in
what we learned in Module 2
to examine disease through these different study designs.
If you have any questions about this material,
please don't hesitate to let me know.
Take care.