Nghiên cứu này sẽ được hữu ích, nhưng không thể dứt khoát. Nó cho thấy cho dù nghiên cứu thêm là cần thiết để xác nhận hoặc bác bỏ những ấn tượng thu được từ nghiên cứu mô tả. Các thông tin về sức mạnh của hiệp hội cũng sẽ giúp đỡ trong việc thiết kế các nghiên cứu phân tích. | 48 A practical guide for health researchers endometrial carcinoma. The investigators can design an observational study or an experimental study. If the decision was for an observational study the investigators may do a descriptive study or an analytical study. For a descriptive study they will review the clinical records of all patients diagnosed as having endometrial carcinoma. They will look for a history of post-menopausal hormonal therapy. This study will be useful but cannot be definitive. It shows whether further study is needed to confirm or refute the impression gained from the descriptive study. The information about the strength of the association will also help in the design of further analytical studies. The finding that many of the women who developed endometrial carcinoma had a history of homonal therapy cannot lead to any conclusion. It may simply mean that this therapy is widely used in the community both by women who develop and who do not develop endometrial carcinoma. This shows the need for further studies. For an analytical study the investigators may do a cross-sectional study or a longitudinal study. In a cross-sectional study the investigators may study all postmenopausal women admitted to hospital over a defined time period. For each woman they record whether she received or did not receive hormonal therapy and whether she had or did not have endometrial cancer. The advantage of this study is that it can be done rapidly. It gives more evidence than the simple descriptive study. However the two groups of patients may not be comparable. In a longitudinal observational study the investigators may do a prospective study or a retrospective study. For a prospective study a cohort of two groups of postmenopausal women is followed up one group already receiving hormone replacement therapy and another matched group not receiving this therapy. For a retrospective study a case-control design can be selected. A group of women who have recently .
