Balkau B, Eschwege E
INSERM U21, Hôpital Paul Brousse, Villejuif, France.
Diabete Metab. 1995 Feb;21(1):69-75.
This series of three articles reviews the designs of studies which can be used to identify risk factors of a disease, here: diabetes or complications of diabetes. In the present issue of Diabete & Metabolisme, the first article of the series, we give the definition of a risk factor, along with measures of its force--relative risk and odds ratio, followed by the epidemiological definitions of the diseases: diabetes, coronary heart disease and hypertension. Risk factors are further discussed and we complete the discussion by some observations on the bias which can arise from a study or from its analysis, which can lead the researcher to the wrong conclusion. The three types of epidemiological studies which are used to determine whether factors are associated with a disease: observational or cross-sectional studies, cohort studies and case-cohort studies will be described in the second of the series in the next issue of the journal. Examples will be provided of each of these study types; their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed. In a third issue, the final paper will provide some examples of the study types and the identification of risk factors. The first examples involve diabetes and pancreatic cancer, the second birth weight and non-insulin dependent diabetes. Having found an association between a risk factor and diabetes, then we will discuss whether it can be considered to be a risk factor and if so and whether it is likely to be a cause of the disease.
本系列三篇文章回顾了可用于识别疾病风险因素的研究设计，这里指的是糖尿病或糖尿病并发症。在本期《糖尿病与代谢》杂志中，作为该系列的第一篇文章，我们给出了风险因素的定义，以及其强度的衡量指标——相对风险和比值比，随后介绍了这些疾病的流行病学定义：糖尿病、冠心病和高血压。我们进一步讨论了风险因素，并通过对研究或其分析中可能出现的偏差的一些观察来完成讨论，这些偏差可能会导致研究人员得出错误的结论。用于确定因素是否与疾病相关的三种流行病学研究类型：观察性或横断面研究、队列研究和病例队列研究，将在该杂志下一期的系列第二篇文章中进行描述。将为每种研究类型提供示例；讨论它们的优缺点。在第三期，最后一篇论文将提供一些研究类型的示例以及风险因素的识别。第一个示例涉及糖尿病和胰腺癌，第二个示例涉及出生体重和非胰岛素依赖型糖尿病。在发现风险因素与糖尿病之间存在关联后，我们将讨论它是否可被视为风险因素，如果是，以及它是否可能是该疾病的病因。
