Abstract:
Follow-up studies (also called prospective or cohort studies)
are used to determine the natural history of disease, to evaluate
the role of risk factors in causation or association, to determine
the prognosis of patients with existing disease, and to evaluate
the role of drugs and other interventions in preventing disease
or further complications. In follow-up studies sampling is
prospective, because individuals are· followed up to see whether
they develop the outcome of interest. These studies have
become increasingly important in recent decades with the
epidemiological transition that has paralleled population
development from a high incidence of acute infectious diseases
to a high ipcidence of chronic, non-infectious diseases in
ageing populations.
