Introduction / background / objectives

Among Occupational Health professionals (especially doctors), there may be a confusion of concepts between the Clinical Case (generally used for educational purposes) and the Case Study methodology.

The aim of this informal review was to understand the basic principles of this form of investigation and whether it can be adapted to assess some issues encompassed in Occupational Health.

Methodology

This is a Bibliographic Review, initiated through a research carried out in October 2020, in the RCAAP database.

Content

All phenomena contain qualitative and quantitative details. When analyzing reality, it can be considered as a totality or as being made up of a series of units and each one may have a different strategy for data collection.

Case study can be defined as an empirical investigation that analyzes a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly defined. It is a comprehensive research strategy. It is the preferred methodology when asking “how” and “why” questions, when the researcher has little control over events and/ or cannot associate relevant behaviors.

Case Studies can clarify a decision, how it was implemented and/ or its results. It is a mean of organizing data, preserving the object studied and its unitary character; it can be a detailed description of a situation- the goal is not to represent the world, but the case. It usually leads to a more accurate understanding of the conditions under which the phenomenon occurred.

Conclusions

The Case Study may have applicability in some situations of Occupational Health, so it should be an option to consider during some investigations.

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