Types Of Cross Sectional Studies

The most common type of cross sectional studies is the environmental health survey in which participants are enrolled from exposed and unexposed areas to collect the information on health status exposure to environmental factors and potential confounding factors.

Types of cross sectional studies. A cross sectional study is a type of research design in which you collect data from many different individuals at a single point in time. Cross sectional studies are often used in developmental psychology but this method is also used in many other areas including social science and education. A cross sectional study involves looking at data from a population at one specific point in time.

Some of the critical characteristics of a cross sectional study are. Cross sectional studies can be classified as descriptive or analytical depending on whether the outcome variable is assessed for potential associations with exposures or risk factors. In medical research social science and biology a cross sectional study also known as a cross sectional analysis transverse study prevalence study is a type of observational study that analyzes data from a population or a representative subset at a specific point in time that is cross sectional data.

Descriptive cross sectional studies simply characterize the prevalence of one or multiple health outcomes in a specified population. Analytical cross sectional surveys may also be used to investigate the association between a putative risk factor and a health outcome. The second requires a longitudinal study.

However this type of study is limited in its ability to draw valid conclusions as to the association between a risk factor and health outcome. Researchers in economics psychology medicine epidemiology and the other social sciences all make use of cross sectional studies in their work. In cross sectional research you observe variables without influencing them.

Advantages of a cross sectional study. Revised on june 5 2020. Both the cross sectional and the longitudinal studies are observational studies.

To make our choice we need to know more about the benefits and purpose of each study type. Defining characteristics of cross sectional studies. The participants in this type of study are selected based on particular variables of interest.