As a state epidemiologist, you are called upon to determine whether a recent oil spill in a water reservoir has caused an unusua
l type of acute arthritis. Within the county that you work, water is supplied by two independent reservoirs separated by 100 miles. The spill occurred in one of these reservoirs. The records from the Water Department clearly indicate which households receive water from which reservoir. Finally, you develop a case definition and institute a surveillance program to detect cases. To determine an association between the oil spill and arthritis, would you perform a cohort study or case-control study
An epidemiology expert will make use of a Case-control Study for proper determination of association or linkage between the oil spill and the disease outbreak (arthritis).
Case-control Study provides an observational experiment between two existing groups (two reservoirs) differing in outcome (affected and not affected), they are highlighted and compared on the basis of a context (disease outbreak; arthritis).
However, the known group is regarded as the control group and it provides a substantial guide to the confirm the validity of other experimental groups in relation to the general context (outbreak of arthritis).
