7.2.2. Descriptive study designs

Descriptive studies aim to collect information about a given individual or group and can be used to provide data on the distribution of disease. Examples of descriptive study designs are case reports and case series. In health care, these types of studies are typically used to describe the occurrence of disease or a risk factor. Case reports and case series are often used to report novel occurrences of a disease or a unique finding, and they can be particularly informative for rare or emerging diseases. There are guidelines to report case reports in terms of completeness, transparency and data analysis (The CARE Guidelines: Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development), which the reviewers should refer to when including and reporting case reports in their systematic review reports (Gagnier, Kienle et al. 2014).