Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Retrospective Study

A retrospective study is an observational research design that looks backward in time, using existing records—medical charts, registries, autopsy findings, pathology archives, or imaging—to examine associations between prior exposures or characteristics and subsequent outcomes. Unlike prospective studies, it analyze…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 12 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 20× across the literature 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

A retrospective study is an observational research design that looks backward in time, using existing records—medical charts, registries, autopsy findings, pathology archives, or imaging—to examine associations between prior exposures or characteristics and subsequent outcomes. Unlike prospective studies, it analyzes events that have already occurred, which makes it efficient for investigating rare conditions, long latency periods, and questions where randomized experimentation is impractical, while remaining susceptible to selection and information bias and to incomplete documentation. Retrospective designs include case series, retrospective cohort, and case-control analyses. Research using this approach spans many clinical fields: multi-year analyses of syphilis and associated comorbidities, autopsy series linking thymic hypertrophy to sudden unexpected death, comparisons of brachytherapy techniques in cervical cancer, evaluation of gallbladder mucosal changes by stone type, hospital-based studies of liver disease trends, transplant outcomes, prostate biopsy findings, and anatomical risk factors in implant dentistry. Such studies generate hypotheses, quantify disease burden and trends, identify prognostic and risk factors, and inform the design of subsequent prospective work. Rigorous case definition, consistent data abstraction, and appropriate statistical adjustment strengthen their validity. The journal publishes peer-reviewed retrospective analyses across these diagnostic, therapeutic, and epidemiological contexts.

Research published in this journal

12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 12 articles above have been cited 20 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Retrospective Study, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Palliative Care And Hospice.

Journal editorial board
Lillie Shockney · United States Nadya Dimitrov · United States Anne Arber · United Kingdom

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.