Longitudinal Study

In a longitudinal study, researchers repeatedly examine the same individuals to detect any
changes that might occur over a period of time.

Longitudinal studies are a type of correlational research in which researchers observe and
collect data on a number of variables without trying to influence those variables.

While they are most commonly used in medicine, economics, and epidemiology, longitudinal
studies can also be found in the other social or medical sciences.

How long is a longitudinal study?

No set amount of time is required for a longitudinal study, so long as the participants are
repeatedly observed. They can range from as short as a few weeks to as long as several
decades. However, they usually last at least a year, oftentimes several.

One of the longest longitudinal studies, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, has been
collecting data on the physical and mental health of a group of Boston men for over 80 years!

Longitudinal vs cross-sectional studies

The opposite of a longitudinal study is a cross-sectional study. While longitudinal studies

repeatedly observe the same participants over a period of time, cross-sectional studies
examine different samples (or a “cross-section”) of the population at one point in time. They
can be used to provide a snapshot of a group or society at a specific moment.

Both types of study can prove useful in research. Because cross-sectional studies are shorter
and therefore cheaper to carry out, they can be used to discover correlations that can then be
investigated in a longitudinal study.

Cross-sectional vs longitudinal exampleYou want to study the relationship between smoking

and stomach cancer. You first conduct a cross-sectional study to see if there is a link between
smoking and stomach cancer, and you discover that a link exists in men but not in women.
You then decide to design a longitudinal study to further examine this relationship in men.
Without the cross-sectional study first, you would not have known to focus on men in
particular.
Advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal studies

Like any other research design, longitudinal studies have their tradeoffs: they provide a
unique set of benefits, but also come with some downsides.

 Advantages

Longitudinal studies allow researchers to follow their subjects in real time. This means you
can better establish the real sequence of events, allowing you insight into cause-and-effect
relationships.

ExampleA cross-sectional study on the impact of police on crime might find that more police
are associated with greater crime and wrongly conclude that police cause crime when it is the
other way around. However, a longitudinal study would be able to observe the rise or fall in
crime some time after increasing the number of police in an area.

Longitudinal studies also allow repeated observations of the same individual over time. This
means any changes in the outcome variable cannot be attributed to differences between
individuals.

ExampleYou decide to study how a particular weight-training program affects athletic

performance. If you choose a longitudinal study, the impact of natural talent on performance
should be eliminated, since that would not change over the study period.

Prospective longitudinal studies eliminate the risk of recall bias, or the inability to correctly
recall past events.

ExampleYou are studying the effect of low-carb diets on weight loss. If you asked your
subjects to remember how many carbs or how much they weighed at any point in time in the
past, they might have difficulty doing so. In a longitudinal study, you can keep track of these
variables in real time.

 Disadvantages

Longitudinal studies are time-consuming and often more expensive than other types of
studies, so they require significant commitment and resources to be effective.

Since longitudinal studies repeatedly observe subjects over a period of time, any potential
insights from the study can take a while to be discovered.
Example In the study examining the links between smoking and stomach cancer, you have to
wait several years to see any results since the negative effects of smoking accumulate over
decades.

Attrition, which occurs when participants drop out of a study, is common in longitudinal
studies and may result in invalid conclusions.

Example In your study on the impact of low-carb diets on weight loss, participants who are
not seeing much success might feel more discouraged and thus more likely to drop out. The
diet might therefore appear to be more successful than it actually is!

Cross-Sectional Study

A cross-sectional study is a type of research design in which you collect data from many
different individuals at a single point in time. In cross-sectional research, you
observe variables without influencing them.

Researchers in economics, psychology, medicine, epidemiology, and the other social sciences
all make use of cross-sectional studies in their work. For example, epidemiologists who are
interested in the current prevalence of a disease in a certain subset of the population might
use a cross-sectional design to gather and analyze the relevant data.

Cross-sectional vs longitudinal studies

The opposite of a cross-sectional study is a longitudinal study. While cross-sectional

studies collect data from many subjects at a single point in time, longitudinal studies collect
data repeatedly from the same subjects over time, often focusing on a smaller group of
individuals that are connected by a common trait.

Both types are useful for answering different kinds of research questions. A cross-sectional
study is a cheap and easy way to gather initial data and identify correlations that can then be
investigated further in a longitudinal study.

Cross-sectional vs longitudinal exampleYou want to study the impact that a low-carb diet has
on diabetes. You first conduct a cross-sectional study with a sample of diabetes patients to
see if there are differences in health outcomes like weight or blood sugar in those who follow
a low-carb diet. You discover that the diet correlates with weight loss in younger patients, but
not older ones.
You then decide to design a longitudinal study to further examine this link in younger
patients. Without first conducting the cross-sectional study, you would not have known to
focus on younger patients in particular.

When to use a cross-sectional design

When you want to examine the prevalence of some outcome at a certain moment in time, a
cross-sectional study is the best choice.

Example: You want to know how many families with children in New York City are
currently low-income so you can estimate how much money is required to fund a free lunch
program in public schools. Because all you need to know is the current number of low-
income families, a cross-sectional study should provide you with all the data you require.

Sometimes a cross-sectional study is the best choice for practical reasons – for instance, if
you only have the time or money to collect cross-sectional data, or if the only data you can
find to answer your research question was gathered at a single point in time.

As cross-sectional studies are cheaper and less time-consuming than many other types of
study, they allow you to easily collect data that can be used as a basis for further research.

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.
 Cross-sectional studies capture a specific moment in time. National censuses, for
instance, provide a snapshot of conditions in that country at that time.

Disadvantages

 It is difficult to establish cause-and-effect relationships using cross-sectional studies,

since they only represent a one-time measurement of both the alleged cause and
effect.
 Since cross-sectional studies only study a single moment in time, they cannot be used
to analyse behaviour over a period of time or establish long-term trends.
 The timing of the cross-sectional snapshot may be unrepresentative of behaviour of
the group as a whole. For instance, imagine you are looking at the impact of
psychotherapy on an illness like depression. If the depressed individuals in your
sample began therapy shortly before the data collection, then it might appear that
therapy causes depression even if it is effective in the long term.