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Defining the Study Cohort: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

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Clinical Trials

Part of the book series: Success in Academic Surgery ((SIAS))

Abstract

A study cohort is a group of individuals with common characteristics who are initially defined, composed and then examined or tracked over a given time period. In a clinical trial, outlining the study cohort begins with clearly defined, study-specific eligibility criteria. Inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria together determine who is eligible to participate in the study. These selection or eligibility criteria are determined during the planning phase of the study, with the study goals of the clinical trial in mind. Establishing eligibility criteria primarily requires the precise definition of the primary and secondary study outcomes, which provides guidance for the sample size of the clinical trial that is required to detect a significant difference between the study intervention and control group. The eligibility criteria should be sufficiently narrow to ensure internal study validity, but sufficiently broad to allow for generalizability of the study results to the general population. In addition, eligibility criteria must be chosen carefully to allow for the feasible recruitment of study subjects into the clinical trial and must meet ethical criteria established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Emily Z. Keung & Elizabeth G. Grubbs

  2. Section of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Lisa M. McElroy

  3. Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative (NUTORC), Chicago, IL, USA

    Daniela P. Ladner

  4. Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Daniela P. Ladner

Authors
  1. Emily Z. Keung
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  2. Lisa M. McElroy
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  3. Daniela P. Ladner
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  4. Elizabeth G. Grubbs
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth G. Grubbs .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair, Department of Surgery The Urban Meyer III and Shelley Meyer Chair for Cancer Research, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical, Columbus, OH, USA

    Timothy M. Pawlik

  2. Leon Goldman, MD Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Julie A. Sosa

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Keung, E.Z., McElroy, L.M., Ladner, D.P., Grubbs, E.G. (2020). Defining the Study Cohort: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. In: Pawlik, T., Sosa, J. (eds) Clinical Trials. Success in Academic Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35488-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35488-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35487-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35488-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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