Clinical studies can only be conducted with the methodological support of epidemiology.Epidemiology is based on multidisciplinary medical knowledge,using observation and questioning to investigate the disease and health status of social populations,describing the frequency and distribution of diseases,proposing etiological hypotheses through generalization,synthesis and analysis,and then applying analytical studies to verify the established etiological hypotheses,and finally confirming them further through experimental studies.Descriptive study,also known as descriptive epidemiological research,refers to a realistic portrayal and narrative treatment of the distribution of a disease or health condition using specialized survey data or existing information grouped according to different regions and time or population characteristics.Descriptive study is the most basic step in revealing the causal relationship of diseases.By analyzing and comparing the possible causes leading to the differences in the distribution of diseases or health conditions,it can propose the direction of further research or the conception of preventive and control strategies,and lay the foundation for the subsequent development of analytical research or experimental research.This article begins with the categorization of descriptive clinical studies,introduces the concepts of case reports,case series studies,current studies,longitudinal studies,ecological studies,and screening tests,and focuses on the key points of the design and implementation of prevalence studies,so as to provide researchers with reference for conducting descriptive clinical studies.
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