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Cohort Studies

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The word cohort means a group or set of people. These types of studies look at groups of people. They can be prospective or retrospective. Prospective studies are advanced planning and worked out t over a future period of time. Retrospective studies investigate or look at data that already exist and try to identify risk factors for particular conditions (MacGill, 2018).
These are the best method for determining the incidence and natural history of a condition. The studies may be a combination of prospective or retrospective and sometimes two cohorts are compared. In prospective cohort studies, a group of people is chosen who do not have the outcome of interest. The investigator then measures a variety of variables that might be relevant to the development of the condition. Over a period of time the people in the sample are observed to see whether they develop the outcome of interest. In single cohort studies those people who do not develop the outcome of interest are used as internal controls. Where two cohorts …show more content…
It examines multiple outcomes for a given exposure. It is also use for investigating rare exposures to diseases and can calculate rates of disease in exposed and unexposed individuals over time. It helps identify and evaluate causes or risk factors of diseases or health-related events (Song, Cheng, 2010). In a cohort study, exposure is identified before the outcome for example a disease-free study population is first identified by the event or exposure of interest and followed in time until the outcome or disease of interest occurs. Cohort studies have a temporal framework to assess causality and thus have the potential to provide the strongest scientific evidence. It is particularly advantageous for examining rare exposures because subjects are selected by their exposure status. Additionally, the researcher can examine multiple outcomes together. (Song et al,

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