Question

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional studies and examples of how they can be "descriptive" or "analytic" study designs. Discuss an example of a disease where survival could influence the association between a possible exposure and the disease when measured with a cross-sectional study.

Answer 1

Cross-sectional studies are often seen as the opposite of longitudinal studies. They are measures taken at one moment in time instead of over a period. A cross-section of the population is chosen and then hose people's result on some measures are compared

#. Cross-sectional studies Strengths :-

- They gather immediate results. Immediate results are useful because they are easier to carry out in practice. They are also cheaper because researches only have to be in the area once, and can organise the study more easily than if they to return, perhaps years later.

- They are more ethical than longitudinal studies becuase the measures are only taken once, rather than imposing on participants more often

#. Cross-sectional studies Weakness :-

- Different Participants are used in the conditions, so participant variables can affect the result.

- There are many different variables in the two(or more) situations being tested that cannot be controlled.

A discriptive cross sectional study is a study in which prevalence or incidence of a disease condition is assessed in a population at a specific time period . For example incidence of cancer among a population . Researcher will evaluate different aspects such as age , ethnicity , geographical location etc .

Another example is relation of smoking and lung cancer . Means how many people those who smoke( exposure ) have lung cancer ( disease ) .