[Answered]: Case-Control Study Design Suppose that you have…

Case-Control Study Design Suppose that you have been hired by university student health services to design a case-control study to assess the following hypothesis among undergraduate students: Irregular sleep patterns increase the risk of headaches. Be sure that your design addresses the following elements: Refine the study hypothesis so that it is as specific as possible and contains all elements of a “good” hypothesis. If you have irregular sleep patterns, you are more at risk for headaches because the brain has less time to repair itself while you sleep. How will you identify and define the cases? We will identify and define cases of this issue as people who sleep less than seven hours a night, people who nap throughout the day instead of sleeping at a specific time, along with experiencing headaches more than twice a week. Are there any exclusion criteria that you would apply? Participants would be excluded if they get more than seven hours of sleep or experience less than two headaches per week. How will you sample from the underlying population for your “controls”? Who will you select as controls? How will you select them? How will you define the exposure of interest? How will you collect the information on exposure? What other information do you want to know about participants that may be related to the exposure of interest and/or the outcome (potential confounders)? Of these, what will you be able to collect and what will you be unable to collect? Which measures of disease frequency and association will you calculate? What are the strengths and limitations of your study? Which limitations could be removed by using a different study design? What other information would you like to know to design this study?