What are the weaknesses of a cross-sectional study?

The weaknesses of cross-sectional studies include the inability to assess incidence, to study rare diseases, and to make a causal inference. Unlike studies starting from a series of patients, cross-sectional studies often need to select a sample of subjects from a large and heterogeneous study population.
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What are the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional studies?

4. Strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional studies
  • Relatively quick and easy to conduct (no long periods of follow-up).
  • Data on all variables is only collected once.
  • Able to measure prevalence for all factors under investigation.
  • Multiple outcomes and exposures can be studied.
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What is the biggest problem with cross-sectional studies?

Potential bias in cross-sectional studies

Non-response is a particular problem affecting cross-sectional studies and can result in bias of the measures of outcome. This is a particular problem when the characteristics of non-responders differ from responders.
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What is a con of a cross-sectional study?

Cross-sectional studies cannot establish a cause-and-effect relationship or analyze behavior over a period of time. To investigate cause and effect, you need to do a longitudinal study or an experimental study.
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Which of the following is a main disadvantage of the cross-sectional design?

A disadvantage of cross-sectional research is that it just tells researchers about differences, not true changes. Also, researchers have to worry about whether change is due to age/development or generational/cohort effect.
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Study Design Part 3 - Cross Sectional Studies



What is one disadvantage of the cross-sectional method of observation?

What is one disadvantage of the cross-sectional method of observation? Researchers cannot be sure what factors account for differences among participants.
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What is a major limitation of a cross-sectional design and developmental research?

One of the primary limitations of cross-sectional research is that the results yield information about age differences not necessarily changes with age or over time.
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What are advantages and disadvantages of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs?

Longitudinal study is conducted with the same sample over the years. Cross-sectional studies cannot pin down cause-and-effect relationship. Longitudinal study can justify cause-and-effect relationship. Multiple variables can be studied at a single point in time.
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Why do cross-sectional studies have low internal validity?

First, the primary limitation of the cross-sectional study design is that because the exposure and outcome are simultaneously assessed, there is generally no evidence of a temporal relationship between exposure and outcome.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of cross sequential research?

Benefits of this design include requiring fewer participants and more easily controlling for group differences and cohort effects. Disadvantages include attrition and participant's providing biased responses. A cross-sequential study is a mix of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.
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Why cross-sectional data do not determine cause-and-effect?

However, cross-sectional studies may not provide definite information about cause-and-effect relationships. This is because such studies offer a snapshot of a single moment in time; they do not consider what happens before or after the snapshot is taken.
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Are cross-sectional studies reliable?

Cross-sectional studies serve many purposes, and the cross-sectional design is the most relevant design when assessing the prevalence of disease, attitudes and knowledge among patients and health personnel, in validation studies comparing, for example, different measurement instruments, and in reliability studies.
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How do you reduce bias in a cross-sectional study?

Selection bias can be minimized in cross sectional studies by trying to contact those who cannot be contacted during the survey timings. It is worthwhile going through following lines in the endgame first (1): "Therefore, ownership of a phone and listing in the directory would have influenced inclusion in the study.
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What is the advantages of cross-sectional study?

Advantages. Because you only collect data at a single point in time, cross-sectional studies are relatively cheap and less time-consuming than other types of research. Cross-sectional studies allow you to collect data from a large pool of subjects and compare differences between groups.
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What are the advantages of cross-sectional studies?

Cross-sectional studies permit researchers an opportunity to study multiple outcomes and exposures simultaneously. That allows multiple variables to be accessed simultaneously, which increases the accuracy of an assessment on the burdens of a data point within the specific population group.
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What is the limitation of cross-sectional data?

The primary limitation of cross-sectional studies is that the temporal link between the outcome and the exposure cannot be determined because both are examined at the same time.
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What are the disadvantages of case control studies?

The most commonly cited disadvantage in case-control studies is the potential for recall bias. Recall bias in a case-control study is the increased likelihood that those with the outcome will recall and report exposures compared to those without the outcome.
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Are cross-sectional studies generalizable?

Generalizability limited by sampled population and population definition. Sample size requirements may be very large (especially when looking at rare outcomes or exposures). Potential for selection bias. It evaluates prevalence rather than incidence.
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What is a weakness of a longitudinal study?

1. They require huge amounts of time. Time is definitely a huge disadvantage to any longitudinal study, as it typically takes a substantial amount of time to collect all the data that is required. Also, it takes equally long periods to gather results before the patterns can even start to be made.
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What are the pros and cons of using longitudinal studies?

What are the pros and cons of a longitudinal study? Longitudinal studies are better to establish the correct sequence of events, identify changes over time, and provide insight into cause-and-effect relationships, but they also tend to be more expensive and time-consuming than other types of studies.
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Which of the following is a disadvantage of longitudinal studies?

The main disadvantage of longitudinal surveys is that long-term research is more likely to give unpredictable results. For example, if the same person is not found to update the study, the research cannot be carried out.
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What is one strength of the cross-sectional design?

One of the advantages of cross-sectional studies is that since data is collected all at once, it's less likely that participants will quit the study before data is fully collected.
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What is a disadvantage of a Microgenetic study?

Disadvantages of Microgenetic Methods. Microgenetic studies are susceptible to repeated testing since participants are observed frequently in a short period of time.
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What is a disadvantage of the case study method the results are ____?

One disadvantage of case study method is that researchers must be extremely cautious when generalizing from a single case to the population as a whole.
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How do you minimize selection bias?

The best way to avoid selection bias is to use randomization. Randomizing selection of beneficiaries into treatment and control groups, for example, ensures that the two groups are comparable in terms of observable and unobservable characteristics.
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