Epidemiology: Advantages and Disadvantages of Case Control Studies

Advantages

 Easy to conduct as no follow up is required

 No attrition, as no follow up is needed
 Gives faster results
 Inexpensive
 Suitable for rare and newly identified diseases
 More than one risk factors can be studied simultaneously
 Ethical problem lesser as disease has already occurred

 They are efficient for rare diseases or diseases with a long latency period
between exposure and disease manifestation.
 They are less costly and less time-consuming; they are advantageous when
exposure data is expensive or hard to obtain.
 They are advantageous when studying dynamic populations in which
follow-up is difficult.
 They are efficient for rare diseases or diseases with a long latency period
between exposure and disease manifestation. They are less costly and less
time-consuming;
 They are efficient for rare diseases or diseases with a long latency period
between exposure and disease manifestation.
 They are less costly and less time-consuming; they are advantageous when
exposure data is expensive or hard to obtain.

Disadvantages
 The study depends upon the history given by the subject. Hence recall bias
can occur
 Sometimes finding and appropriate control is difficult
 We can only establish an association between the disease and the risk
factor as we don’t know what occurred first
 We can’t know the incidence hence can’t calculate the relative risk (RR)
directly from a case-control study

 They are subject to selection bias.

 They are inefficient for rare exposures.
 Information on exposure is subject to observation bias.
 They generally do not allow calculation of incidence (absolute risk).
 'Recall bias' When people answer questions about their previous exposure
to certain risk factors their ability to recall may be unreliable.
 Cause and effect.
 'Sampling bias'
 Other limitations
 They are efficient for rare diseases or diseases with a long latency period
between exposure and disease manifestation.
 They are less costly and less time-consuming; they are advantageous when
exposure data is expensive or hard to obtain.