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Research Study Types Cohort Follows a group of individuals overtime to observe the development of a particular outcome Provide crucial evidence for understanding the natural history of diseases, identifying risk factors, and informing public health interventions and policies o Longitudinal Design §...

Research Study Types Cohort Follows a group of individuals overtime to observe the development of a particular outcome Provide crucial evidence for understanding the natural history of diseases, identifying risk factors, and informing public health interventions and policies o Longitudinal Design § Follow a group of individuals over a period of time o Defined Population § Researchers select a group of individuals who share a common characteristic or experience Ex. being born in the same year, having a certain occupation, or being exposed to a particular risk factor o Comparison Groups § Include comparison groups, allowing researchers to compare outcomes between exposed and unexposed individuals or between different levels of exposure Cross Sectional Study A type of observational research design commonly used in epidemiology, social sciences, and public health research Gathers data from a population at a single point in time to assess prevalence and assc among variables o Snapshot in Time § Provide a snapshot of data collected at a single point in time § Researchers collect information from a sample of the population at one specific moment o No follow-up § Do not involve follow-up assessments § They are relatively quick and cost-effective compared to longitudinal studies in cohort studies o Prevalence v incidence § Provide prevalence estimates, which reflect the proportion of individuals with a particular condition or characteristic at a specific point in time. Randomized Control Trials (RCT) Experimental study design widely used in various fields, including medicine, psychology, education, and social sciences Participants randomly allocated to different interventions, then followed and outcomes assessed Assesses the effectiveness of interventions Randomization o Key feature of RCTs o Participants assigned to treatment groups in a random manner o Helps ensure that any potential confounding variables are evenly distributed among the groups o Makes the groups comparable at baseline Controlled Conditions o Minimize bias and maximize the validity of the findings o Researchers carefully control factors such as: § participant selection, intervention delivery, outcome assessment, and data analysis Comparison Groups o Typically include at least two groups: the treatment group(s) receiving the intervention(s) being tested and the control group(s) receiving either a placebo, standard treatment, or no treatment o Allows researchers to compare outcomes between the groups Blinding o To reduce bias o Participants, researchers, and/or outcome assessors may be blinded to the treatment assignment to prevent conscious or subconscious influences on the study results o The gold standard, randomly assigns participants to treatment and control groups to evaluate the effectiveness or efficacy of interventions