Association of Interest: Smoking and Lung Cancer

To prepare for this Application Assignment, identify an epidemiologic association of interest (e.g., smoking and lung cancer, obesity and heart disease, hormonal therapy and breast cancer).

To complete this Application Assignment, write a 2 to 3 page paper in which you describe how you would investigate the association in question using different observational study designs, including the following:

• Cross-sectional (may be descriptive or analytic)
• Case-control
• Cohort

Specify the study design and identify the advantages and disadvantages of that study design.
Identify:

• The population(s) being studied
• The exposure(s)
• the outcome(s)
• the length of follow-up (in cohort studies)
• the type of control (in case control studies)
• the method(s) of ascertainment for exposures and outcomes
• other factors you feel may be relevant to the proposed studies.