Flexible Frames and Control Sampling in Case-Control Studies: Weighters (Survey Statisticians) Versus Anti-Weighters (Epidemiologists).

Abstract

We propose two innovations in statistical sampling for controls to enable better design of population-based case-control studies. The main innovation leads to novel solutions, without using weights, of the difficult and long-standing problem of selecting a control from persons in a household. Another advance concerns the drawing (at the outset) of the households themselves and involves random-digit dialing with atypical use of list-assisted sampling. A common element throughout is that one capitalizes on flexibility (not broadly available in usual survey settings) in choosing the frame, which specifies the population of persons from which both cases and controls come.