Title: Descriptive studies: what they can and cannot do - ScienceDirect
Headings: Descriptive studies: what they can and cannot do
Series
Descriptive studies: what they can and cannot do
Summary
The descriptive triad—or pentad?
Five “W” questions
Types of descriptive studies
Case report
Case-series report
Cross-sectional (prevalence) studies
Surveillance
Ecological correlational studies
Uses of descriptive studies
Trend analysis
Planning
Clues about cause
Advantages and disadvantages
Overstepping the data
Conclusion
References

Content: They are often the first foray into a new disease or area of inquiry—the first scientific “toe in the water”. 1 They document the health of populations and often prompt more rigorous studies. Since descriptive studies are often reported, 2 clinicians need to know their uses, strengths, and weaknesses. A descriptive study is “concerned with and designed only to describe the existing distribution of variables, without regard to causal or other hypotheses.” 3 The key qualifier about causal hypotheses is sometimes forgotten by investigators, resulting in erroneous conclusions. Here, we provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of descriptive studies, provide examples of several types of descriptive study, examine their clinical uses, and show how they can be misinterpreted. The descriptive triad—or pentad? Five “W” questions
Traditional descriptive epidemiology has focused on three key features: person, place, and time,4 or agent, host, and environment. 5 An alternative approach is that of newspaper coverage.