Difference Between Case Control And Cross Sectional Study

Cross sectional studies case control studies and cohort studies are all types of analytical epidemiological studies.

Difference between case control and cross sectional study. The second requires a longitudinal study. A longitudinal study goes on for a longer period of time. Both the cross sectional and the longitudinal studies are observational studies.

Cross sectional is prevalence study and useful to look at single point of time whereas case control study are used to study 2 groups cases diseased and controls non diseased and to identify the. Such information can be used to explore aetiology for example the relation between cataract and vitamin status has been examined in cross sectional surveys. Case study case series cross sectional analytic cross sectional cohort case control hybrid studies nested cc case cohort experimental studies randomized controlled trials nonrandomized controlled trials assign exposure natural exposure no comparator with hierarchy of evidence bmj 2001 323 334 1 systematic review meta analysis randomized.

Case control study is a retrospective study that is it proceeds backwards from effect to cause. The first approach is typical of a cross sectional study. Cross sectional studies are different from the others we have discussed.

All have individual as unit of study. One key difference between cohort and case control study is that the cohort study is prospective while the case control study is retrospective. As some of the subjects have been deliberately chosen because they have the disease in question case control studies are much more cost efficient than cohort and cross sectional studies that is a higher percentage of cases per study.

Characteristics of longitudinal study and cross sectional study. The difference lies in the design of the study. To make our choice we need to know more about the benefits and purpose of each study type.

In this observational study the prevalence of the exposure and the health outcome are measured at the same time. Where the outcome is rare case control studies may be the only feasible approach. Cross sectional studies a cross sectional study measures the prevalence of health outcomes or determinants of health or both in a population at a point in time or over a short period.