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Encyclopedia > Longitudinal studies

A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves observations of the same items over long periods of time, often many decades. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the life span. The reason for this is that unlike cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies track the same people, and therefore the differences observed in those people are less likely to be the result of cultural differences across generations. Longitudinal studies are also used in medicine to uncover predictors of certain diseases. Linear correlations between 1000 pairs of numbers. ... Cross-sectional studies form a class of research methods that involve observation of some subset of a population of items all at the same time. ...


Because longitudinal studies are observational, in the sense that they observe the state of the world without manipulating it, they have less power to detect causal relationships than do experiments. But because of the repeated observation at the individual level, they have more power than cross-sectional observational studies, by virtue of being able to exclude time-invariant unobserved individual differences, and by virtue of observing the temporal order of events. An observational science is a science where it is not possible to construct controlled experiments in the area under study. ... The philosophical concept of causality, the principles of causes, or causation, the working of causes, refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ...


Types of longitudinal studies include cohort studies and panel studies. Cohort studies sample a cohort, defined as a group experiencing some event (typically birth) in a selected time period, and studying them at intervals through time. Panel studies sample a cross-section, and survey it at (usually regular) intervals. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Cohort (statistics). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Cohort (statistics). ... For other meanings see cohort In statistics and demography, a cohort is a group of subjects — most often humans from a given population — defined by a condition on their date of birth. ...


A retrospective study is a longitudinal study that looks back in time. For instance a researcher may look up the medical records of previous years to look for a trend.


Examples

The Dunedin Longitunal Study is a study based in Dunedin, New Zealand. ... The Framingham Heart Study is a cardiovascular study based in Framingham, Massachusetts. ... The Minnesota Twin Family Study is a longitudinal study of twins conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota. ... The World Values Survey is an academic project by social scientists to assess the state of sociocultural and political values of different cultures around the world. ... The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), carried out at the Institute for Social and Economic Research of the University of Essex, is an instrument for social and economic research. ... For the soft drink, see 7 Up. ... Born in Bradford Logo Born in Bradford is a large birth cohort study based at Bradford Royal Infirmary, a hospital in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. ... The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey is an Australian household-based panel study which began in 2001. ...

See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Longitudinal studies (1010 words)
The ONS Longitudinal Study of England and Wales, Scottish Longitudinal Study and Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study are examples of the second kind.
Longitudinal studies are useful for studying individual-level change over time, in contrast to cross-sectional datasets (such as the census itself), which provide a snapshot of a population at a single point in time (or at repeated intervals, as in a time series).
English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, the first study in the UK to connect the full range of topics necessary to understand the economic, social, psychological and health elements of the ageing process.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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