Please find the definitions for some of the keywords you will come across on our website and study documents.
Data: facts or numbers, or information that is stored in a computer collected from individuals with their informed consent.
Dataset: a collection of facts or numbers, or information collected from multiple individuals to conduct statistical analyses.
Participant: Adults who have given consent to take part in a research study.
Loyalty Card: A membership card from high retailers that collects information on household purchases including location of the purchases and when each individual item was purchased.
Case-control study: A case-control study is a type of research method that compares individuals who have a disease or outcome of interest (cases) with individuals who do not have the disease or outcome of interest (controls) in order to investigate exposures or risk factors that might be associated with the disease to add to our understanding of the disease. Case-control studies are observational and retrospective investigations.
Case participant: In CLOCS, women aged 18 and over, who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and have given consent to take part in the study are considered cases.
Control participant: In CLOCS, women aged 18 and over who have not been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and have given consent to take part in the study are considered controls.
Informed Consent: Informed consent means that the participants of a research project have fully read the information provided about the study, considered their options and decided to enter the study voluntarily.
Variable: A variable is any characteristics, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted. A variable may also be called a data item. For instance, age, gender, classification of individuals’ ethnicity, height and weight are examples of variables. Similarly, your responses to yes/no questions are also classified as variable. It is called a variable because the value included in a dataset will vary across the study population, and may change in value over time.