Some Fundamental Aspects of Epidemiology A Guide for Laboratory Scientists

Our plain-English summary of Some Fundamental Aspects of Epidemiology A Guide for Laboratory Scientists, by W.J. Rogan, S.M. Brown (1979).

The study

• Authors: W.J. Rogan, S.M. Brown
• Published: Federation Proceedings, Volume 38 No5. April 1979
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article was a methods essay, not a study of asbestos or of people. Written as a guide for laboratory scientists, it divided epidemiology into three study types: cross-sectional surveys, follow-up (prospective) studies, and case-control (retrospective) studies. They wrote that surveys observe people at one point in time and that possible biases had led to distrust of their risk estimates. Apart from clinical trials, they called the follow-up study the standard method of epidemiologic investigation. They wrote that ascribing causal relationships to death-certificate studies of exposed groups is quite hazardous. They wrote that case-control studies seemed optimal for rare diseases, particularly epidemic ones, and that their suitability for outbreaks was beyond question. They explained that case-control studies cannot estimate absolute risk without additional information, and that their odds ratio closely approximates relative risk for rare diseases. The authors concluded that, except for clinical trials, epidemiology is observational rather than manipulative and so highly susceptible to factors the investigator may not know about. Asbestos appeared only in the reading list, which cited a Selikoff follow-up study of lung cancer and mesothelioma in insulation workers.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Methods essay (review of basic epidemiologic study designs); no original data
• Exposure: No specific exposure was studied. Asbestos-related disease appears only in a bibliography entry citing a Selikoff follow-up study of lung cancer and mesothelioma in insulation workers.
• Main results:
  • The authors divided epidemiology into three types of study: cross-sectional surveys, follow-up (prospective) studies, and case-control (retrospective) studies.
  • In a survey, people are observed at only one point in time.
  • Excluding clinical trials, the follow-up study was described as the standard method of epidemiologic investigation.
  • For studies that examine death certificates of an exposed group, the authors wrote that ascribing causal relationships to the findings is quite hazardous.
  • The case-control study was described as seeming optimal for rare diseases, particularly those occurring in epidemic fashion and probably having a unique and specific cause.
  • For outbreaks of disease, the authors wrote that the suitability of the case-control study is beyond question.
  • Absolute risk cannot be estimated from case-control studies unless additional information about the population is available.
  • For rare diseases, the odds ratio from a case-control study is very close to a relative risk.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, with the exception of clinical trials, epidemiology is an observational rather than manipulative science, and is therefore highly susceptible to factors that may or may not be known to the investigator.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Epidemiology, Clinical Trial, Odds Ratio, Relative Risk, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Insulator.

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