Quantitative/ Study design
Longitudinal cohort
Follow change through time.
Follow a defined group over time, relating earlier exposures or characteristics to subsequent outcomes. Cohorts can be assembled prospectively or reconstructed from existing records.
WHEN IT FITS
The timing of exposure and outcome matters, or you need to study incidence, trajectories, or longer-term associations without assigning exposure.
Strengths
- Establishes the order of recorded exposure and outcome.
- Can examine incidence and multiple outcomes.
- Reveals trajectories that a single snapshot cannot.
Limitations
- Loss to follow-up can introduce bias.
- Confounding persists without suitable identification assumptions.
- Long follow-up and rare outcomes demand resources.
Know the boundary
Earlier exposure alone does not prove causation. Causal interpretation requires defensible assumptions about confounding, selection, and measurement.
USED ACROSS
Banking & financeBusiness & MBAPsychologyComputer scienceEducation