Question

The effect of exposure to high levels of alcohol consumption was compared to occasional or no alcohol consumption among adult males and females. It is hypothesized that high levels of alcohol consumption is associated with myocardial infarction (MI). This association was studied with 596 incident cases of MI diagnosed in the emergency rooms of several hospitals and compared to 1012 other subjects who visited the same emergency rooms for reasons other than cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. All subjects were asked to report average weekly alcohol intake over the past month prior to their hospital visit.

After completing the recruitment, the investigators compiled their data in the following table:

	Alcohol Consumption
	Frequent (>2 drinks /week)	Occasional (1-2 drinks /week)	None (0/week)
Acute MI	283 A	152 b	161
Other ER Visit	306 c	444 d	262
	589	596	273

1. What is the study design and appropriate measure of association?

Answer 1