Observational Studies

An observational study is an empirical investigation of the effects of treatments, policies, or exposures. It differes from an experiment in that the investigator cannot control the assignments of treatments to subjects. Scientists across a wide range of disciplines undertake such studies, and the aim of this book is to provide a sound statistical account of the principles and methods for the design and analysis of observational studies. Readers are assumed to have a working knowledge of basic probability and statistics, but otherwise the account is reasonably self-contained. Throughout there are extended discussions of actual observational studies to illustrate the ideas discussed. These are drawn from topics as diverse as smoking and lung cancer, lead in children, nuclear weapons testing, and placement programs for students. As a result, many researchers involved in observational studes will find this an invaluable companion to their work. An observational study is an empirical investigation of the effects of treatments, policies, or exposures. It differs from an experiment in that the investigator cannot control the assignment of treatments to subjects. Scientists across a wide range of disciplines undertake such studies, and the aim of this book is to provide a sound statistical account of the principles and methods for the design and analysis of observational studies. Readers are assumed to have a working knowledge of basic probability and statistics, but otherwise the account is reasonably self-contained. Throughout there are extended discussions of actual observational studies to illustrate the ideas discussed. These are drawn from topics as diverse as smoking and lung cancer, lead in children, nuclear weapons testing, and placement programs for students. As a result, many researchers involved in observational studies will find this an invaluable companion to their work Front Matter....Pages i-xv Observational Studies....Pages 1-12 Randomized Experiments....Pages 13-58 Overt Bias in Observational Studies....Pages 59-86 Sensitivity to Hidden Bias....Pages 87-135 Known Effects....Pages 136-153 Multiple Reference Groups in Case-Referent Studies....Pages 154-173 Multiple Control Groups....Pages 174-186 Coherence and Focused Hypotheses....Pages 187-199 Constructing Matched Sets and Strata....Pages 200-224 Some Strategic Issues....Pages 225-227 Back Matter....Pages 229-231