Study design: what’s in a name?

European Journal of Endocrinology, vol. 183, pp. E11–E13

Abstract

The name of the study should properly reflect the actual conduct and analysis of the study. This short paper provides guidance on how to properly name the study design. The first distinction is between a trial (intervention given to patients to study its effect) and an observational study. For observational studies, it should further be decided whether it is cross-sectional or whether follow-up time is taken into account (cohort or case-control study). The distinction prospective-retrospective has two disadvantages: prospective is often seen as marker of higher quality, which is not necessarily true; there is no unifying definition that makes a proper distinction between retrospective and prospective possible.

Authors 2

1. Olaf M. Dekkers corresponding Aachen 1Departments of Clinical Epidemiology 2Endocrinology

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   1Departments of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

   2Endocrinology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

2. Rolf H. H. Groenwold Aachen 1Departments of Clinical Epidemiology 3Biomedical Data Sciences

   Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   1Departments of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

   3Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands