Title: Descriptive Studies
Headings: Descriptive Studies
Descriptive Studies
What are descriptive studies?
Uses of Descriptive Studies
1. Health care planning
2. Hypothesis generation
3. Trend Analysis
Types of Descriptive Studies
Case reports
Case Series
Cross-sectional (Prevalence) Study
Ecological Study (or Ecological Correlational Study)
Advantages of an ecological study
Disadvantages of an ecological study
Further Reading

Content: Ecological Studies examine populations. Common misuses of descriptive studies involve a lack of a clear, specific and reproducible case definition and establishing a casual relationship which the data cannot support. Whilst descriptive studies can highlight associations between variables or between exposure and outcome variables, they cannot establish causality. Descriptive studies do not have a comparison (control) group which means that they do not allow for inferences to be drawn about associations, casual or otherwise. However, they can suggest hypotheses which can be tested in analytical observational studies. Uses of Descriptive Studies
1. Health care planning
Descriptive studies provide knowledge about which populations or subgroups are most or least affected by disease. This enables public health administrators to target particular segments of the population for education or prevention programmes and can help allocate resources more efficiently. 2. Hypothesis generation
Descriptive studies identify descriptive characteristics which frequently constitutes an important first step in the search for determinants or risk factors that can be altered or eliminated to reduce or prevent disease.