Weaknesses (cont’d)
Weaknesses (cont’d)
- Influence on clinical research
- Retrospective chart review
- to investigate a question that was not a subject of study at the time the data were collected
- laborious and tedious
- Prospective study-randomized, double-blind
- clinical hypothesis is known in advance
- research protocol designed specifically to collect future data relevant to study question
- Passive nature of paper records