Abstract
Epidemiological studies are able to show relationships and associations in the cohort of patients studied, but the associations cannot be generalized unless the patients or populations studied are representative of all those with the condition in question. In a series of young patients with stroke, drugs and oral contraceptives are often correlated with stroke occurrence but age is not. In contrast, stroke occurrence increases with age in studies that include geriatric patients. Properly selected control groups are important if relationships between a factor and a condition are being studied. For example, in a study in France of stroke in the young, 34% of the female stroke patients took oral contraceptives, an impressive proportion (Gautier et al. 1989). However, at that time in France 32% of women of the same age took oral contraceptives, so that the use of these agents was not shown to be a risk factor for stroke in the group of patients studied.
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© 1995 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Caplan, L.R. (1995). Concluding Comments. In: Caplan, L.R. (eds) Brain Ischemia. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2073-5_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2073-5_37
Publisher Name: Springer, London
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