ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the perspective of psychosocial epidemiology to analyze and discuss research design and data analysis strategies useful for planning more effective studies of the etiology of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) in the work environment. The perspective of psychosocial epidemiology represents an analytic framework in which the interplay of biomedical, physical, and psychosocial/ behavioral risk factors and moderators in the etiology of a physical disorder is of central importance. The complexity calls for theoretical models sufficiently rich to encompass a potentially large and diverse set of risk factors and moderators, and the possibly complicated etiological dynamics among them. In addition, however, disorders of complex etiology tend to demand stronger or more definitive research designs, which inevitably translate into prospective studies of initially healthy cohorts, and, possibly, special monitoring for intermediate outcomes as well. Furthermore, there is also a greater need to set up data analysis strategies that will be sensitive to the complexity of the theoretical models: identify exposures, adjust for confounders, search for vulnerability factors, determine possible underlying mediating processes, and so on.
