Signal generation and clarification: use of case-control data.
Case-control surveillance systems are useful for 'signal' generation, i.e., signaling potential previously unidentified adverse effects of drugs. Two systems currently in operation, the Slone Epidemiology Unit's Case-Control Surveillance and the Birth Defects Study, have monitored drug effects since 1976. With extensive information on the diagnoses and covariates, the systems have the capacity to carry out in-depth analyses in which the outcome measure is more specifically defined and in which confounding is controlled, thus reducing the possibility of false alarms.
Kaufman
D W
DW
Slone Epidemiology Unit, Boston University School of Medicine, 1371 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02446, USA. david@slone.bu.edu
Rosenberg
L
L
Mitchell
A A
AA
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D011358:Product Surveillance, Postmarketing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment