Disease Detectives B/C

[Birdmusic]

Anyone have a good summary of the different types of studies? (Experimental, cohort, cross-sectional..etc?) I need a good, concise way to remember the basics about each study. I know all of the calculations and such, but I'm having trouble remembering what each of them is for. Thanks!
EDIT: Usually I just have long paragraphs of stuff on my info sheet, but I think it's time to downsize...

Here's my basic understanding, I put an example next to each. I hope it helps!
Randomized control trial: randomly assign people to treatment/exposure and a placebo, usually to test medicine (People with cancer are randomly given a drug or placebo to test results)
Quasi experimental: like RCT, but not random (People with cancer that are older than 40 are given the drug while younger people are given a placebo)
Cohort: Compare people with or without a certain exposure to see what might resulte in a disease (Comparing medical records of smokers vs non smokers to see if smokers got a certain disease)
Case-control: Compare people with and without disease to see what could have been the cause (Comparing habits of people with/without lung cancer to find common exposure in people with disease and no exposure in people without disease)
Cross sectional: data collected at a point in time, to see prevalence of a disease (surveys/ questionnaires)
Ecological: data analyzed by looking at the location of things (John Snow's cholera outbreak study, where he mapped where people with cholera lived)

[huppada]

How often to statistics questions come up in Division C exams?

And can someone please explain what a t-test is and how to do it?

[fifelski19]

Hi,
Has there been an update to the Ten Steps of Outbreak Investigation? I ask because there was a question about it a few times on some of the tests from last year, and with the setup that we had we got it incorrect along with having different numbers of steps sometimes. I know that the wiki has a different version up from previous years, but the link to show the explanations on why the steps are the way they are is still from previous years and also has a thing above it saying that it has been peer reviewed and it was current. Taking a look at the resources on SOINC, the only thing that stuff about it is the CDC has the old definition. However, when searched on the actual CDC website, there's a 13-step version. So, which one are we considering correct? I'd assume that it's the most current, but what about invitationals who don't use the most current one?
Thanks!

[WhatScience?]

Anyone have a good summary of the different types of studies? (Experimental, cohort, cross-sectional..etc?) I need a good, concise way to remember the basics about each study. I know all of the calculations and such, but I'm having trouble remembering what each of them is for. Thanks!
EDIT: Usually I just have long paragraphs of stuff on my info sheet, but I think it's time to downsize...

The wiki has it great if you just wanna glance at your notesheet and figure it out...you don't need any more

"Ecological - comparisons of geographical locations

Cross Sectional - a survey,health questionnaire, "snapshot in time"

Case-Control - compare people with and without disease to find common exposures

Cohort - compare people with and without exposures to see what happens to each

Randomized Controlled Trial - human experiment

Quasi Experiments - research similarities with traditional experimental design or RCT, but lack element of random assignment to treatment/control"

[huppada]

Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

[WhatScience?]

Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

[Nerd_Bunny]

This really sounds like a stupid question but I'm asking it here anyway.

So I've really been messing up on questions asking about means, modes, and medians of dates on a epi-curve. I have the definition of median right here on a paper and it says:

"Median: half the values lie above the median and half the values lie below the median; outliers do not affect median. Medians are typically reported when data are skewed."

Then it gives these examples:

1,3,5,7,9 Median = 5
1,3,3,5,5,6 Median = 2.5

Wouldn't the second median be 4? I promise I didn't fail math in elementary school but I'm thinking that there's something wrong with this paper. If I'm wrong I want a full math explanation because this has been bothering me for a while now.

Ok nevermind. The paper was wrong. I googled it.

[summit]

Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

[Unome]

Are we allowed to use a graphing calculator during the competition?

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

This is why I reference the rules instead of posting an answer - that way, I can't be wrong

[WhatScience?]

I feel like pulling an experienced member and saying "read the rules"

nut nah, the rules say non-graphing calculator dedicated to computation

so no

The rules this year state, " two calculators of any type dedicated to computation."

This is why I reference the rules instead of posting an answer - that way, I can't be wrong

I'm going to hide in a hole forever...don't like all the other events say non-graphing....

-_-



my career is over guys