RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evidence-based Medicine and Clinical Study Designs: Examples of Applications for Allergy Research
Simon F. Thomsen*
Center for Medical Research Methodology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2014Volume: 7
First Page: 1
Last Page: 9
Publisher Id: TOALLJ-7-1
DOI: 10.2174/1874838401407010001
Article History:
Received Date: 28/2/2014Revision Received Date: 7/7/2014
Acceptance Date: 15/7/2014
Electronic publication date: 8/9/2014
Collection year: 2014
© 2014 Simon F. Thomsen;
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Evidence of the effect of clinical interventions in allergology, and in medicine as a whole, can be hierarchically grouped based on the research design producing the evidence. The most weight is given to systematic reviews and metaanalyses, and to randomised controlled trials. These trial designs are superior to non-randomised controlled trials and cohort studies, which in turn are superior to case-control studies. The least weight is given to case-studies and anecdotal evidence. Herein, the principles of evidence-based medicine and clinical study designs are reviewed in the context of examples from the allergology literature.
Keywords: Case-control study, controlled trial, cohort study, Evidence-based medicine, meta-analysis, randomised, study de-signs, systematic review.
