Saturday, June 16, 2012

How can epidemiological studies be used to identify the cause-and-effect of smoking and lung cancer

How can epidemiological studies be used to identify the cause-and-effect of smoking and lung cancer?

Cancer - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
They can only link that people who smoke have a much higher rate of cancer. What the tobacco companies argue is that no one has proved the cause and effect of smoking. Not everyone who smokes gets cancer, it only increases your risk. Not to say smoking is a good idea!
2 :
To amplify the first answer. The first way is a crude link by comparing incidence in smokers to incidence in non-smokers. Then the data is refined in various ways - first you might look for a dose response by looking for increased incidence in those who smoke heavily for a number of years. Then you might try a group study by taking people from various groups e.g. men from socio-economic group 5 with ... and seeing whether the same behaviour is seen. This helps to isolate other factors, such as poverty, occupation etc which may also affect the incidence of cancer. You might also go on to look at cell culture studies or animal studies to see if a mechanism for a component of tobacco or its combustion product produce cancers or the sort of cell changes which precede cancers. It gets complicated and the first answer was quite right - it raises the risk. So all smokers will not get cancer but the chances of a smoker getting cancer are greater than if that same person was a non-smoker.
3 :
to know incidence of smoking . lung cances deaths to know the prevalence of the same how to prevent this preventable event to show the public the impact of data=to convert their lyfe style healthy life style adaptation by majority to make govenment and ngo pogrammes

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