Knowing how medical research is done can help you better appreciate what is relevant to your health.

Doctors at The Mayo Clinic explain the basics of medical research, for those interested in the latest findiings. It's important to realise that there's a big gap - usually of several years - between lab experiments and studies in humans.

You may come across two kinds of human studies - epidemiology and clinical trials. Epidemiology looks at the factors affecting disease in populations. Such studies can be retrospective - looking at which lifestyle or environmental factors were linked to certain health outcomes. Prospective studies, usually more accurate, plan in advance what to look for over a period of time.

In clinical trials, look for the randomized controlled trial as the 'gold standard' of research. Here a carefully selected group is given either the treatment under trial or a placebo or standard treatment. But the study is 'blinded' - with neither researchrs nor volunteers knowing what each individual is given. And the longer the study lasts, and the greater the number of participants, the more credence can be given to the results.

Source

Mayo Clinic Health Letter August 2003