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Case-Control Studies

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Handbook of Epidemiology

Abstract

The case-control study examines the association between disease and potential risk factors by taking separate samples of diseased cases and of controls at risk of developing disease. Information may be collected for both cases and controls on genetic, social, behavioral, environmental, or other determinants of disease risk. The basic study design has a long history, extending back at least to Guy’s 1843 comparison of the occupations of men with pulmonary consumption to the occupations of men having other diseases (Lilienfeld and Lilienfeld 1979). Beginning in the 1920s, it was used to link cancer to environmental and hormonal exposures. Broders (1920) discovered an association between pipe smoking and lip cancer; Lane-Claypon (1926), who selected matched hospital controls, investigated the relationship between reproductive experience and female breast cancer; and Lombard and Doering (1928) related pipe smoking to oral cancer. The publication in 1950 of three reports on the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer generated enormous interest in case-control methodology as well as bitter criticism (Levin et al. 1950; Wynder and Graham 1950; Doll and Hill 1950). The landmark study of Doll and Hill (1950, 1952), in particular, inspired future generations of epidemiologists to use this methodology. It remains to this day a model for the design and conduct of case-control studies, with excellent suggestions on how to reduce or eliminate selection, interview, and recall bias.

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Sander Greenland, Noel Weiss, the editors and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft. This work was supported in part by grant R01-CA40644 from the US Public Health Service.

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  1. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, 357232, 98155-7232, Seattle, WA, USA

    Norman E. Breslow

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  1. Norman E. Breslow
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  1. Department of Epidemiological Methods and Etiologic Research, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

    Wolfgang Ahrens

  2. Department of Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

    Iris Pigeot

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Breslow, N.E. (2014). Case-Control Studies. In: Ahrens, W., Pigeot, I. (eds) Handbook of Epidemiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_7

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