The selection of controls in a case-control study is important because you need to compare individuals with the disease to individuals without the disease (control group). You want the individuals in the control group to come from the same source population as the individuals that make up your cases. They would have been selected as cases if they had the diseases at the time that the study started. The controls “should meet the eligibility requirements for cases except for their disease status (Epiville: case-control study).” By selecting the controls in this way it allows the researcher to identify the history of exposure among a population that is similar to the cases except that they do not have the disease. The goal of a control group is to be able to give an estimate of exposure in the source population in the absence of a disease. …show more content…
The controls that are selected are members of the Superfit Center. They will have been members for at least 6 months in the past 2 years, which are the same requirements for the cases. However, the controls will not have been diagnosed with Susser syndrome at the time that data collection started. The method for selecting controls for this case-control study would be to link the database of memberships for the Superfit Fitness Center to the hospital discharge database (Epiville: case-control study). A random sample of people is selected and their eligibility is determined. If they are eligible, they will be asked to