Glossary
Case control1: an observational study that begins with patients (cases) who have the health problem, and control participants who do not have the health problem and then looks backward to identify possible causal factors (eg, comparing patients with and without lung cancer for past exposure to tobacco).
Cohort: a group of people with a common characteristic or set of characteristics is followed up for a specified period of time to determine the incidence of some outcome; there is no comparison group.
Cohort analytic study: at least 2 groups of people (cohorts) are assembled who do not have the condition of interest; one group is exposed to a particular factor or set of factors (a potential causative agent for a particular disease or an intervention) and then all groups are followed up for a specified period of time to compare the incidence of the outcome of interest.
Confidence interval (CI): quantifies the uncertainty in measurement; usually reported as 95% CI, which is the range of values within which we can be 95% sure that the true value for the …
