Abstract
This chapter summarises our basic understanding of cohort studies, a type of observational epidemiology study that some have also called longitudinal, or prospective. A cohort study evaluates the risk of disease or disease-related outcome in a population that is characterised in terms of relevant risk factors or exposures, placed under observation, and followed for some time until disease develops or not. In contrast to its classical counterpart, the case-control study (cf. Chap. I.6 of this handbook), cohort studies can relate multiple diseases to the exposure or exposures identified. On the other hand, cohort studies are frequently restricted to a limited number of exposures and potential confounders that can be included in the study, if historical data is used.
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Miller, A.B., Goff, D.C., Bammann, K., Wild, P. (2005). Cohort Studies. In: Ahrens, W., Pigeot, I. (eds) Handbook of Epidemiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-26577-1_6
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