Wynder E L
Division of Epidemiology, American Health Foundation, New York, NY 10017, USA.
J Clin Epidemiol. 1994 Aug;47(8):825-7. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(94)90184-8.
Epidemiologists recognize that systematic errors in the design or conduct of a study may bias the results. Information on the exposure of interest may be especially prone to misclassification. Even information that has been well-documented may be reported incorrectly. Study subjects may have difficulty recalling past exposures or behaviors, or may provide responses based on wishful thinking. The nature and importance of these biases is not always fully considered by investigators in their data analysis and in their investigation. This paper reviews the most common type of biases and cites examples of how the responses of subjects substantially affect study results.
流行病学家认识到，研究设计或实施过程中的系统误差可能会使结果产生偏差。关于感兴趣暴露因素的信息可能特别容易出现错误分类。即使是记录良好的信息也可能被错误报告。研究对象可能难以回忆过去的暴露情况或行为，或者可能基于一厢情愿给出回答。调查人员在数据分析和调查中并不总是充分考虑这些偏差的性质和重要性。本文回顾了最常见的偏差类型，并列举了研究对象的回答如何实质性影响研究结果的例子。
