Reference no: EM133394531

The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) has been conducted across 6 regions in the United States. The main goal of this study was to identify and characterize risk factors for subclinical and clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). Study participants included 6500 men and women (equal in numbers) who were aged 45 to 84 years and free of clinical CVD at baseline. MESA was comprised of four racial/ethnic groups. There were four exams. The first exam began in July 2000 and was conducted over 24 months. The second (Jul 2002-Jan 2004) exam and third (Jan 2004- Jul 2005) exams were conducted over 18 months. The fourth exam (Jul 2005-Jul 2007) was conducted over a 24 month period and included repetition of selected measures to be studied for temporal trends. Serum samples of the whole cohort (including those from the subsample participants) were frozen/stored for future use. Analyses were conducted in a subsample to compare cases of myocardial infarction that occurred during follow-up with participants who did not have CVD at the same time during follow-up.

In these analyses, analytes measured in thawed serum samples collected at baseline were compared between the two groups.

1. What type of study design is this?

2. What are the main advantages of this study design as it pertains to this analysis?

3. If investigators wished to analyze the associations of risk factors with a given outcome using only data on exposure and outcome at baseline, what type of study would they be conducting?

4. What are the main disadvantages of the study design mentioned in question 3?