Question

Dietary histories were collected from all patients recently diagnosed with diabetes at a San Francisco Veterans hospital and compared with the dietary histories from a sample of the same Veterans hospital patients who came in for injuries and did not have diabetes. The objective was to determine whether having a history of specific dietary factors was associated with the development of diabetes. Which study design matches this description?

a. randomized-controlled trial

b. case-control study

c. cohort study

d. cross-sectional study

e. ecological study

Answer 1

The answer is option b- case control study

Case control study:- In this study patients who have a disease are compared with those who do not have it. It compares the exposure to risk factor in both groups and the relation between the risk factor and the disease.

In the given example the two groups were veterans at a San Francisco hospital where one group had diabetes and the other group did not.Dietary histories were collected from both groups to study if having history of specific dietary factor ( exposure to risk factor) was associated with diabetes.