1)
Describe the characteristics and design of a cohort study. Based on a 1) disease or health condition identified from the “2020 LHI Topics” page on the Healthy People website, or an article from the GCU library, discuss a real example of a cohort study (include the link to the article in your post to the forum). Include the participants, exposures or treatment groups, timeframe, and outcomes that were measured. Why is a cohort study described as an “observational” study rather than an “experimental” study design?
https://himmelfarb.gwu.edu/tutorials/studydesign101/cohorts.cfm#:~:text=Definition,factors)%20are%20associated%20with%20it.
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-…
2)
I was blessed to travel to Japan in summer 2019 to join my youngest daughter to tour her lab and travel around for a few weeks. She completed 10 weeks of undergraduate research at Ritsumeikan University using the Plantago major plant. It is a common weed/plant in yards and I have used it to treat burns and bee stings (Jeanroy, 2019). My daughter extracted a compound from the plant, made 3 fractions, and fed the fractions to diabetic mice to examine efficacy for treatment of the disease by examining hepatic and pancreatic cells (proud mom here!). Abud et al. (2017) also conducted a similar experiment.
What type of epidemiological study might be appropriate to examine the efficacy of this plant extract diabetes treatment among humans?
Arigato,
3)
My research interests are in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and environmental health. I would like to share an example of a cohort study conducted among Malaysians that examined CAM use among this population, you can access the article via the link below. I practice many CAM modalities, such as yoga, reiki, Ayurveda, aromatherapy, and herbal therapy, myself and with my clients as integrative medicine. Do you use any CAM techniques? Why is it difficult to assess the efficacy of CAM therapies compared to Western Medicine?
4)
During Topics 6 and 7 we have differentiated between the various epidemiological study designs. The broad categories of studies are experimental and observational studies. Experimental designs are those that are created and controlled to observe the effect of a single variable. Most drug treatment studies are experimental designs, otherwise known as Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs).
Experimental designs are useful to determine causality and the efficacy of a treatment or intervention but are not very good at determining the effectiveness or how the treatment will work in the real world, not controlled by the researcher. Random allocation to the treatment group is a key feature of the RCT design, which is one of the best ways to minimize the effect of confounding even on omitted variables.
Observational designs are those that study naturally occurring events and phenomenon to understand relationships. An example of an observational study design is the cohort study. Cohort studies identify a population with varying levels of exposure or risk factor. The population is then observed over time in their natural environment and new disease cases are tracked to assess if there is a relationship with the exposure or risk factor of interest. Given the range of other variables that might impact disease, it is important for observational studies to identify and take into account these other variables. This design is limited in its ability to establish causality but is important for studying how a treatment or intervention might work in the real-world. Observational studies are also important to study relationships that are not able to be controlled for in a created environment such as alcohol or other drug use.
Review a recent RCT conducted on the blood concentrations of active ingredients in sunscreen or the COVID antiviral therapy RCT below and let me know your thoughts. I came across subsequent studies on these topics more recently!
Looking forward to hearing from you,
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