Related Experiment Videos
Practical aspects of sharing controls between case-control studies.
Greta R Bunin1, Mona Baumgarten, Sandra A Norman
1Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA. bunin@email.chop.edu
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
|June 17, 2005
Summary
Sharing controls in concurrent case-control studies offers significant cost savings and reduces recruitment efforts. However, it introduces design complexity and requires more investigator time for management.
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Biostatistics
Background:
- Case-control studies are crucial for investigating disease etiology.
- Efficiently recruiting and managing control groups is a persistent challenge in epidemiological research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the practical benefits and drawbacks of sharing control groups across multiple, simultaneous case-control studies.
- To assess the feasibility and impact of shared controls in cancer research.
Main Methods:
- Conducted two concurrent case-control studies (breast and endometrial cancer) utilizing shared control groups.
- Ensured overlapping geographic areas, identical questionnaires, biosample collection, and eligibility criteria for controls.
Main Results:
- Reduced the need for identifying potential controls by 25% and interviewing eligible controls by 32%.
- Achieved cost savings of approximately $296,000, representing 7% of the total project funding.
Conclusions:
- Sharing controls presents design complexities and demands increased investigator time for planning and monitoring.
- The approach is most effective when strict frequency matching is not essential and studies share substantial overlap in data collection and eligibility criteria.