Population-based study designs in molecular epidemiology.

This chapter will discuss design considerations for epidemiological studies that use biomarkers in the framework of etiologic investigations. The main focus will be on describing the incorporation of biomarkers into the main epidemiologic study designs, including cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal designs to characterize biomarkers, and prospective cohort and case-control studies to evaluate biomarker-disease associations. The advantages and limitations of each design will be presented, and the impact of study design on the feasibility of different approaches to exposure assessment and biospecimen collection and processing will be discussed.