Capstone Case J: Obesity and Endometrial Cancer: Case Control and Prospective Cohort Studies

Capstone Cases

Capstone Case J: Obesity and Endometrial Cancer: Case Control and Prospective Cohort Studies

A number of studies have shown a relationship between obesity or body mass index (BMI) and endometrial cancer. Weiderpass and col- leagues (2000) conducted a population-based case–control study in Sweden among post-menopausal women aged 50–74. Of the 1,055 eligible cases identified through the five regional cancer registries in Sweden, 789 participated in the study but only 592 had complete data to be used in the analysis of obesity and endometrial cancer. Of the 4,268 controls randomly selected from a population register that included all residents of Sweden, 3,368 participated in the study but only 2,521 had complete data for the analysis of obesity and endo-metrial cancer. Friberg, Mantzoros, and Wolk (2007) investigated the link between diabetes and endometrial cancer in a population-based prospective cohort study using the Swedish mammography cohort of 36,773 women aged 50–83 with 225 incident cases of endometrial cancer.

Questions

1. What makes the first study a case–control study?

2. What makes the second study a cohort study?

3. We will first focus on the case–control study. When are case–

control studies an appropriate study design?

4. What are the assumptions in a case–control study?

5. Should we use incident or prevalent cases? Are the endometrial

cancer cases in this study incident or prevalent?

6. Could hospitals be used as a source of cases in this study?

7. What is the purpose of controls in a case–control study?