PUBHLTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Recall Bias, Observational Error, Sampling Error
11 Jul 2019
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Document Summary
Spurious assocations: random error/chance: an alpha level of 0. 05 leaves a 1/20 chance of a false-positive result, systematic (non-random) error: bias which can occur in a study design, conducting or analysis of an epidemiologic study. Causal associations: casual associations are real associations which are causal. In epidemiology, it is difficult to prove a casual association, particularly for observational studies. The web of causation: not single cause, causes of disease are interacting. Consistency: associations are more likely to be causal if they are observed repeatedly by different persons, in different places , circumstances and time, ex. Meta-analysis of studies of lung cancer of never-smoking females exposed to spousal smoking, by continent. Cholesterol is associated with diet/related with chd/cholesterol is on the casual pathway from diet to chd: confounder, confounding factor, confounding variable, confounding is study specific, no variables are always cofounders. Information bias: sources of information bias include. Investigators perspective: participants perspective, deficiency of tools.
