Observational study
Diet and Nutrition
- Are Three Squares a Day the Only Healthy Way?
- Avoiding Calorie Traps
- Changing Our Eating Habits
- Mindful Eating
- Putting the Pyramid Into Action
- Choosing Carbohydrates Wisely
- Choosing Less Calories, Salt and Alcohol
- Choosing the Right Fats & Carbohydrates
- Controlling Fats When Shopping and Cooking
- Controlling Portion Sizes
- Food and Nutrition
- High Blood Cholesterol - Cooking Healthy Meals
- Reading the Food Label
- The DASH Diet
- The Importance of Healthy Eating
- Weight Loss for the Long-term
- Weight Loss/Management Center
- Weight Management Center
- What To Eat When You Want To Lose Weight
Cardiac Procedures
- Cardiovascular Center of Excellence
- Angiogram, Coronary
- Angioplasty
- CABG
- Cardiac Catheterization
- Cardiac Stress Test
- Computed Tomography (CT) Scan
- Coronary Angiogram
- Coronary Angiography
- Coronary Artery Bypass Graft - CABG
- Doppler Ultrasound
- Echocardiogram
- Electrocardiogram
- Electrophysiology Study
- Nuclear Stress Test
- Pacemaker Implant
- Venography
Cardiology
- Cardiovascular Center of Excellence
- Aneurysm
- Angina
- Arrhythmias
- Bradycardia
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Controlling Your High Blood Pressure
- Coping with the Challenges Of Heart Failure
- Coronary Artery Disease
- Heart Attack
- Heart Failure
- Heart Surgery - Reducing Future Risk Factors
- High Blood Cholesterol - Cooking Healthy Meals
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol
- Hypertension
- Learning about Risk Factors
- Lipid Disorders
- Metabolic Syndrome – Reducing Your Risk Factors
- Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
- Peripheral Vascular Disease
- Stroke
- The Implant Procedure
- Treating Atrial Fibrillation
- Understanding Arterial Plaque
- Understanding Atrial Fibrillation
- Understanding Cholesterol Levels
- Understanding Heart Failure
- What is Angina Pectoris?
- What is Metabolic Syndrome?
- What is a Stent?
An
observational
study (also called an
epidemiological
or
population
study) looks at large populations in an attempt to find trends. It is usually retrospective—that is, it examines what has happened in the past. Participants may fill out surveys or questionnaires on what they recall about particular behaviors, such as what foods they ate or what nutritional supplements they took in past years. Researchers don't change anything—they simply look at what is already going on. Such studies have most often tried to find connections between what people eat and the development of different diseases. A few have looked at the effect of taking nutritional supplements.
Observational studies are open to dispute and mixed interpretation by their very nature. For example, if an observational study finds that people who drink green tea develop less cancer, it is not necessarily the green tea that deserves the credit. Green tea drinkers may also tend to exercise more and to eat more healthful foods in general. Maybe it is those habits, and not the tea, that plays the most important role. Researchers try to look closely at the data and eliminate such factors, but it can never be done perfectly.
