Epidemiology

Running head: EPIDEMIOLOGY
Epidemiology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1EPIDEMIOLOGY

2EPIDEMIOLOGY
Question 1:
a) The infants in Norway that have the orofacial clefts are treated in surgical centres at the
governmental expenses. The surgical centres are situated in Bergen and Oslo. The researchers
contacted families of such new-born infants that were born between the year 1996 to 2001 that
were referred for the surgical treatment of the cleft. During the same year, the researchers have
selected the randomly of the 4000 live births as controls for both the case groups, these babies
were selected with the case: control ratio of about 1:2 for the cleft lip with or without cleft palate.
and the ratio chosen for the cleft palate is 1:4. Father and mothers were sent with informed
consent (Wilcox et al. 2007).
b) Folic acid deficient is associated with the neural tube defects and the it has been known to
cause the facial clefts in rodents. However, it has been seen that the studies that have associations
with the facial clefts is inconsistent and the question still remains. This question mainly relevant
in the countries that have fortified the folic acid in foods. One such country is Norway where the
there is a highest rate of facial cleft in Europe. Due to this the researchers have assessed the
possible effects of facial clefts in Europe and it has been done through the population based
control study (Wilcox et al. 2007).
c) The same research can also be conducted in a randomised controlled Trial because the within
a randomized controlled trial the experiment is aimed towards new treatment testing and is meant
to reduce bias. The people that are participating in the trial are randomly allocated to either the
group that of receiving a standard form of treatment (control) or a group that is receiving the
treatment under investigation. In the study design it has already been highlighted that the babies
are randomly selected in both the control and the investigation group (Wilcox et al. 2007).