A case-control study was performed to determine whether head injury was associated with an increased risk of brain tumors in chi
ldren. Two hundred cases with brain cancer were identified from the state cancer registry and 200 controls were recruited from the same neighborhoods where the cases lived. The mothers of the children completed a questionnaire that asked them to describe their child's past history of head injury. The investigators found that the mothers of the children with brain tumors reported a past head injury for 70 of the cases while a past history of head injury was reported in 30 of the controls. What type of bias was likely to have influenced the findings of this study? Length bias Recall bias Surveillance, diagnostic, or referral bias Interviewer/recorder bias
The correct answer is recall and interviewer bias.
Explanation:
Case-control study is a form of a retrospective study. In this, information is gathered from the past. As the data is collected from the past, it is subjected to memory bias, that is, also called recall bias. In the given case, interviewer bias can also take place because of the differences in the collection of data, interpretation, and procedures by the interviewers. The diagnostic and length bias generally takes place in a cohort study.
