Representativeness issues in epidemiological studies (Ⅱ) / 中华疾病控制杂志

ABSTRACT

The review clarifies the relation of representativeness to multicenter intervention design, heterogeneity, response rate, and loss to follow-up. In addition, the implications of representativeness in the era of precision medicine and big data-based epidemiological studies are further discussed. In summary, population health researchers should have a fair understanding of the function and role of representativeness in epidemiology in order to conduct scientifically plausible studies to generate the best evidence for practice.