The role marijuana smoking plays in the occurrence of lung cancer
Epidemiological study design: case control study
2. Main exposure/risk factor(s): marijuana
3. Health outcome/disease(s): lung cancer
4. Population of interest : senior population (individuals 55 and older)
5. Research question(s): What is the association between smoking recreational marijuana and the occurrence of lung cancer in in seniors aged 55 and older?
• Background (one page maximum)
• Statistics and information about the health outcome/disease(s)
• Statistics and information about the exposure/risk factor(s)
• Brief discussion of possible connection between exposure(s) and outcome(s) and justification for the study
• Target population and sample size
• Description of target population and sample
o Inclusion and exclusion criteria
o The sampling strategy to be used
• Sample size considerations (how large of a sample cancer do you need and why)
• Recruitment (primary data collection) or data selection (secondary data) strategies
• If collecting your own data, describe:
o How you will find and contact potential participants (where, when, with what method)
o The type of data collection method to be used (e.g., online survey)
o How many times participants will be contacted and by what method
• If using secondary data (an existing database), describe:
o The procedures used for recruitment, participation, and data collection by the owners of the database (i.e., how were the data in the database collected?)
o How you will gain access to the dataset
• Selection biases
• Description of potential selection bias concerns (i.e., how representative your sample will be of the larger population)
• Discussion of strategies you will use to minimize selection bias in your study
