
What are the 4 types of research design?
Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper
- Introduction. Before beginning your paper, you need to decide how you plan to design the study. ...
- General Structure and Writing Style. ...
- Action Research Design. ...
- Case Study Design. ...
- Causal Design. ...
- Cross-Sectional Design
- Experimental Design. ...
- Exploratory Design
- Historical Design. ...
- Longitudinal Design. ...
How do I design a study?
Provide an overview of different types of study designs. Understand the strengths and limitations of each type of study design, as applied to a particular research purpose. Understand key considerations in designing a study, including randomization, matching and blinding.
What is the difference between retrospective and prospective?
a retrospective study
- Data collection. The primary difference between retrospective and prospective studies is data collection. ...
- Data analysis. Considering that the data collection techniques for prospective and retrospective studies differ, the processes for data analysis are different as well.
- Use and purpose. ...
- Time and cost. ...
Is cross sectional study a retrospective study?
In a cross-sectional study, measurements are made on a single occasion. Conversely, in a longitudinal study, measurements are performed over a period of time. From this, we know that the longitudinal observational study might be retrospective or prospective, depending on investigators interest.

What are the characteristics of a retrospective study design?
In retrospective studies, the outcome of interest has already occurred (or not occurred – e.g., in controls) in each individual by the time s/he is enrolled, and the data are collected either from records or by asking participants to recall exposures. There is no follow-up of participants.
What are the advantages of a prospective study design?
Because prospective studies are designed with specific data collection methods, it has the advantage of being tailored to collect specific exposure data and may be more complete. The disadvantage of a prospective cohort study may be the long follow-up period while waiting for events or diseases to occur.
What are advantages of prospective vs retrospective clinical trials?
Prospective studies usually have fewer potential sources of bias and confounding than retrospective studies. A retrospective study looks backwards and examines exposures to suspected risk or protection factors in relation to an outcome that is established at the start of the study.
Are retrospective studies good?
Retrospective studies are an important tool to study rare diseases, manifestations and outcomes. Findings of these studies can form the basis on which prospective studies are planned.
What are the advantages of retrospective cohort studies?
The advantages of retrospective cohort studies are that they are less expensive to perform than cohort studies and they can be performed immediately because they are retrospective. Also due to this latter aspect, their limitation is: poor control over the exposure factor, covariates, and potential confounders.
What is a retrospective research design?
In a retrospective study, the outcome of interest has already occurred at the time the study is initiated. A retrospective study design allows the investigator to formulate ideas about possible associations and investigate potential relationships, although causal statements usually should not be made.
What are the limitations of a retrospective study?
Disadvantages. Retrospective studies have disadvantages vis-a-vis prospective studies: Some key statistics cannot be measured, and significant biases may affect the selection of controls. Researchers cannot control exposure or outcome assessment, and instead must rely on others for accurate recordkeeping.
What is the difference between a retrospective study and a prospective study?
In prospective studies, individuals are followed over time and data about them is collected as their characteristics or circumstances change. Birth cohort studies are a good example of prospective studies. In retrospective studies, individuals are sampled and information is collected about their past.
What is an example of a retrospective study?
Retrospective example: a group of 100 people with AIDS might be asked about their lifestyle choices and medical history in order to study the origins of the disease. A Second group of 100 people without AIDS are also studied and the two groups are compared.
What is a retrospective study used for?
A retrospective study looks backwards and examines exposures to suspected risk or protection factors in relation to an outcome that is established at the start of the study.
Why are retrospective studies bias?
Note that retrospective cohort studies are often assumed to have more bias since the study operations, data collected, data entry, and data quality assurance, were not planned ahead of time. Any of these areas could be compromised when relying on data that were already collected.
What are the limitations of retrospective application?
DISADVANTAGES OF RETROSPECTIVE STUDIESinferior level of evidence compared with prospective studies.controls are often recruited by convenience sampling, and are thus not representative of the general population and prone to selection bias.prone to recall bias or misclassification bias.More items...
What type of study is a prospective study?
A prospective study (sometimes called a prospective cohort study) is a type of cohort study, or group study, where participants are enrolled into the study before they develop the disease or outcome in question.
What is an example of a prospective study?
A research study that follows over time groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic (for example, female nurses who smoke and those who do not smoke) and compares them for a particular outcome (such as lung cancer).
What is a prospective observational study?
Prospective Observational Study: An observational study, often longitudinal in nature, for which the consequential outcomes of interest occur after study commencement (including creation of a study protocol and analysis plan, and study initiation).
What is difference between prospective and retrospective study?
In prospective studies, individuals are followed over time and data about them is collected as their characteristics or circumstances change. Birth cohort studies are a good example of prospective studies. In retrospective studies, individuals are sampled and information is collected about their past.
How to do a retrospective study?
The aim behind retrospective study design is to study some event, phenomenon or situation that has been happened previously . There are only two ways to collect data for a retrospective study: either the investigator collects information from written evidence like from books, magazines, newspapers, diaries and other personal records, or he asks the respondents who can recall the situation. Asking the respondents about the situation is only possible if the event has happened in a certain time period in the past if the event happened several decades or years back the investigator cannot get the data from people rather he has to rely on written records.
What is the similarity between retrospective and descriptive studies?
The similarity among these studies is that the investigator cannot do experiments to collect first-hand evidence rather he has to collect data from secondary sources.
What are some examples of retrospective studies?
Examples of retrospective study designs 1 To study the impact of Mughal dynasty on the subsequent Muslim civilizations of Indo-Pak. 2 To study the impact of World War II on the living conditions of France today. 3 A historical analysis of the inventions during the Victorian Era in the Europe. 4 A historical analysis of the type of employment preferences among the people of California from 1990-2017. 5 An analysis of the types of crimes committed in the northern region of USA from 2000-2010.
Why are retrospective studies biased?
Retrospective studies have several chances of bias because first-hand information is not possible in this case. The investigator relies on second-hand information or secondary sources of information. The authenticity of second-hand information cannot be made sure completely. However, these studies cannot be conducted using any other study design therefore, the investigator is left with the only option to use the retrospective study design. The investigator needs to take special caution to avoid the chances of bias in the retrospective study designs. The investigator needs to take large sample size to avoid the chances of bias. He should also maintain that he has made the right selection of the evidence to get information about the past event that he is studying.
Can a retrospective study be used with any other study design?
However, these studies cannot be conducted using any other study design therefore, the investigator is left with the only option to use the retro spective study design. The investigator needs to take special caution to avoid the chances of bias in the retrospective study designs.
Can you study multiple problems at the same time?
The baseline, as well as the outcomes, have already happened before the study is conducted therefore the investigator can study multiple problems at the same time. It is very helpful in studying medical situations that happened in the past. It is also helpful in studying medical conditions that are rare and have little or no evidence in ...
Why is the study (E) false?
study ( e is false). This is because the observed association
Why is outcome important?
outcome. This is important because it allows the temporal
Do retrospective cohort studies have a substantial length of follow up?
However, some retrospective cohort studies have a substantial. length of follow-up, and it may be difficult to ensure outcomes. are measured consistently or using the same criteria. Furthermore, when cohort studies have a substantial length of. follow-up, the association between the risk factor (s) and the.
Why is the above cohort study described as retrospective?
The above cohort study is described as retrospective because it involved looking back at events that had already taken place and been recorded in the register. Those patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2008 were identified as the cohort.
Is the cohort in the study above representative of the population?
Because the cohort in the study above was population based, it was representative of the population. It was therefore possible to estimate the population at risk ( d is true). Estimating the population at risk has been described in a previous question. 4 Being able to estimate the population at risk is an advantage, not least because the risk or incidence of ischaemic stroke in the cohort (patients with atrial fibrillation) as a whole, and for men and women separately, can be used to estimate the risk in the population.
What is a prospective study?
A prospective study is a scientific investigation that researchers perform in order to learn more about a particular medical topic. This research involves a specific group of participants, or cohorts, who are prone or predisposed to the outcome of interest.
What is a retrospective study?
A retrospective study is a research project that involves reviewing the results of exposure to and developments of medical incidents that have already occurred. Similar to a prospective study, researchers conducting this study are also interested in learning about participants' development of a particular medical condition.
A prospective vs. a retrospective study
While they're both types of cohort studies, there are several differences between the two which include:
What is a retrospective study?
Retrospective Studies: A Fresh Look. Retrospective studies, often considered inferior to prospective, randomized, and controlled clinical trials, can have strength and validity often not recognized in the hierarchy of clinical data. Retrospective studies, often considered inferior to prospective, randomized, and controlled clinical trials, ...
What is the strength of observational studies?
One distinctive strength of observational studies-which are sometimes but not always retrospective-is the ability to obtain a large corpus of data from medical databases rapidly, as sometimes warranted by pressing health care policy and practice issues.
Is a retrospective study considered a controlled trial?
Retrospective studies, often considered inferior to prospective, randomized, and controlled clinical trials, can have strength and validity often not recognized in the hierarchy of clinical data.
What are the advantages of a retrospective study?
ADVANTAGES OF RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES. quicker, cheaper and easier than prospective cohort studies. can address rare diseases and identify potential risk factors (e.g. case-control studies) not prone to loss of follow up. may be used as the initial study generating hypotheses to be studied further by larger, more expensive prospective studies.
What is a retrospective study?
Retrospective studies are designed to analyse pre-existing data, and are subject to numerous biases as a result
What is the purpose of periodic meetings with chart abstractors and study coordinators?
Hold periodic meetings with chart abstractors and study coordinators to resolve disputes and review coding rules.
How to train abstractors?
Ideally, train abstractors before the study starts, using a set of “practice” medical records. Ensure uniform training, especially in multi-center studies. Abstractors not sufficiently monitored. Monitor the performance of the chart abstractors.
What is blind chart reviewer?
Blind chart reviewers to the etiologic relation being studied or the hypotheses being tested. If groups of patients are to be compared, the abstractor should be blinded to the patient’s group assignment
Is chart abstraction systematic?
define the predictor and outcome variables to be collected a priori. Develop a coding manual and publish as an online appendix. Chart abstraction is not systematic (misclassification bias) Use standardized abstraction forms to guide data collection.
Advantages
Estimating the relative risk of a population tends to be easier with retrospective studies than prospective studies. Retrospective studies are conducted on a smaller scale than prospective studies.
Limitations
Most sources of error in retrospective studies are due to confounding and bias. These errors are more common in retrospective studies than in prospective studies, so a retrospective study design should not be used when a prospective design is possible.
Examples
Investigation of risk factors for breast cancer (Press & Pharoah, 2010).
Frequently asked questions about cohort studies
1. What is the difference between a case control study and a retrospective cohort study?

What Is A Retrospective Study?
- A retrospective study is one that aims to find out what potential risk factors or other associations and relationships a group has in common. The opposite of a retrospective study is a prospective study in which participants are enrolled before any of them have the disease or outcome being i…
Advantages and Disadvantages of A Retrospective Study
- These are some of the benefits and drawbacks that you may have when conducting a retrospective study:
Retrospective Cohort Study
- In a retrospective cohort study, researchers focus on a certain period of time back to find the exposure of a group to the same risk factor. A cohort is a defined group, such as “nurses,” “people 30-39 years old,” or “high school students.” Participants are chosen for a reason, and not at random. For example, researchers may want to investigate whether exposure to commonly use…
Problems with Retrospective Study Design
- Retrospective studies have several chances of bias because first-hand information is not possible in this case. The investigator relies on second-hand information or secondary sources of information. The authenticity of second-hand information cannot be made sure completely. However, these studies cannot be conducted using any other study design therefore, the investi…
Advantages of Retrospectives Studies
- The advantages of retrospective studies include the time-saving nature of these studies as well as the benefit that they can be conducted on a small scale. The baseline, as well as the outcomes, have already happened before the study is conducted therefore the investigator can study multiple problems at the same time. It is very helpful in studying...
Examples of Retrospective Study Designs
- To study the impact of Mughal dynasty on the subsequent Muslim civilizations of Indo-Pak.
- To study the impact of World War II on the living conditions of France today.
- A historical analysis of the inventions during the Victorian Era in the Europe.
- A historical analysis of the type of employment preferences among the people of California from 1990-2017.