Answer for PUB 540 What are the two main types of analytic studies?  Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

Answer for PUB 540 What are the two main types of analytic studies? 

Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

Analytic epidemiology compares using a control group of people that were not affected. This allows the epidemiologist to root out certain characteristics that are specifically associated with the disease as opposed to not being associated with the disease. Just like in the church outbreak, the people that belonged to the church, but had not had dinner on that night were excluded from the pool to be investigated. When characteristics can be identified that are associated with the disease, it gives public health the chance to start working on interventions. It can also lead to determining what a specific cause may be. This is done by studying the associated and non-associated groups by either an experimental study or observational study.   Observational studies can then be either: cohort studies, case-control studies, and cross-sectional studies

Hypothesis testing is part of the analytical epidemiology but is involved more so with interventional study. That part that helps create a cure. As discussed by Friis and Sellers (2020) a statistical test is done to determine the validity of the results. Is that data from the interventional group significantly different from the results of the non-interventional group. In other words, those that got the vaccine and those that did not. We saw this play out in the phase 4 trials of the COVID-19 clinical trials. Can those results be arrived at under the same circumstances with similar study participants? If yes, then your study is significantly important. This is what Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson did. Of course, this is simplified, but this is the gist of hypothesis testing. This is a type is a cohort study.

References

Dicker et al. (2012). Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice: An Introduction to Applied 

Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.  https://www.cdc.gov/cels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section7.html

Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. (2020). Epidemiology for public health practice (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.