Case-control Studies of Common Childhood Diseases : Example of Diarrhoea

This is a distillation of documents prepared for the Diarrhoeal Diseases Control Programme of the World Health Organisation.

It is a practical guide for people in the field to design, control, analyse and interpret a case-control study of their own.

In this case diarrhoeal disease research. It provides a clear view of the problems they will face and practical suggestions for resolving them.

The example-based approach should highlight how the details of each illness differ but the wider issues remain the same with broadly similar arguments applying whether the disease is measles or malaria.