In: Nursing
You have been hired by a research institution to design a study to examine the effects of a drug (used by physicians to control expectant mothers' nausea over the course of a pregnancy) on infant hearing at birth, 6 months and one year. Briefly explain how you might do this using a cross-sectional design, noting benefits and drawbacks. Then explain what a longitudinal design is and how it would improve on your original approach. Lastly, is there another method to consider?
Cross-sectional studies measure simultaneously the exposure and health outcome in a given population and in a given geographical area at a certain time.
Cross-sectional study design:
1. Define the population for study. 2. Determine the presence or absence of exposure and the presence or absence of disease for each individual enrolled in the study. For example we survey a population and for each study participant, we determine at the same time the serum cholesterol (exposure) and evidence of cardiovascular diseases (outcome). Each study participant will be in one of the following possible subgroups (a, b, c and d): a. Persons who have been exposed and have the disease. b. Persons who have been exposed but do not have the disease. c. Persons who have the disease but have not been exposed. d. Persons who have neither been exposed nor have the disease.
In a cross-sectional study we can calculate the prevalence of disease and the prevalence of exposure, using the 2 X 2 table.
Prevalence of disease in exposed compared to non-exposed:a/a+b vs c/c+d.
A longitudinal study, like a cross-sectional one, is observational. So, once again, researchers do not interfere with their subjects. However, in a longitudinal study, researchers conduct several observations of the same subjects over a period of time, sometimes lasting many years.
The benefit of a longitudinal study is that researchers are able to detect developments or changes in the characteristics of the target population at both the group and the individual level. The key here is that longitudinal studies extend beyond a single moment in time. As a result, they can establish sequences of events.
Meta analysis and randomised controlled trial.