PT Journal AU Miettinen, OS TI Etiologic research: needed revisions of concepts and principles SO Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health PD 12VL PY 1999 BP 484 EP 490 IS 6 DI 10.5271/sjweh.470 WP https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=470 DE case-control study; cohort study; confounding; etiologic study; matching SN 0355-3140 AB

Even though etiologic research has been the central concern in academic epidemiology, its concepts have remained confused or malformed, starting from that of etiology itself; and the same applies to its principles, starting from the notion that the principal variants of an etiologic study are the 'cohort' study and the 'case-control' study. This article suggests revisions of some central concepts pertaining to the object (and objective) of an etiologic study, and it posits an updated conception of the essence - singular - the study itself. This is supplemented by some novel, yet merely orientational, propositions in respect to quality-assurance in etiologic research.

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