Attempts to answer questions such as, "What happened?", or "What is it?" Descriptive studies do not need to evaluate an intervention, they may just describe in detail what happened, how it happened, and who was involved
Health Disaster Management: Guidelines for Evaluation and Research in the Utstein Style. Disaster Terminology Disaster Medicine and Management (Prehospital and Disaster Medcine); and Debacker, Domres, and de Boer's, Glossary of New Concepts in Disaster Medicine, USA 2002. http://www.wadem.org/guidelines/glossary.pdf, (Hlth Dzstr Mgt - Amer) {83}