What is a prospective follow up study?

What is a prospective follow up study?

A prospective cohort study is a longitudinal cohort study that follows over time a group of similar individuals (cohorts) who differ with respect to certain factors under study, to determine how these factors affect rates of a certain outcome.

What is an example of a prospective study?

Prospective Cohort Studies: The Framingham Heart Study, the Nurses Health Study, and the Black Women’s Health Study are good examples of large, productive prospective cohort studies. In each of these studies, the investigators wanted to study risk factors for common chronic diseases.

What is difference between prospective and retrospective study?

In prospective studies, individuals are followed over time and data about them is collected as their characteristics or circumstances change. In retrospective studies, individuals are sampled and information is collected about their past.

What is a prospective cohort study in research?

(pruh-SPEK-tiv KOH-hort STUH-dee) A research study that follows over time groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic (for example, female nurses who smoke and those who do not smoke) and compares them for a particular outcome (such as lung cancer).

What type of study is a follow-up study?

a long-term research project designed to examine the degree to which effects seen shortly after the imposition of an intervention persist over time.

What level of evidence is a prospective study?

A cohort study can be prospective (researchers formulate their hypothesis before data collection). For a prospective cohort study, Level of Evidence = II. Or a cohort study can be retrospective (researchers formulate their hypothesis after data collection). For a retrospective cohort study, Level of Evidence = III.

What are the advantages of a prospective study?

Prospective studies are carried out from the present time into the future. Because prospective studies are designed with specific data collection methods, it has the advantage of being tailored to collect specific exposure data and may be more complete.

What is the goal of a prospective study?

Retrospective Studies. A prospective study watches for outcomes, such as the development of a disease, during the study period and relates this to other factors such as suspected risk or protection factor(s). The study usually involves taking a cohort of subjects and watching them over a long period.

What is an example of a retrospective cohort study?

An example of a retrospective cohort study will be interviewing a cohort of people who are HIV positive, ask about their lifestyle choices and medical history to study the origins of the disease.

Is a prospective cohort study quantitative or qualitative?

In a health care context, randomised controlled trials are quantitative in nature, as are case-control and cohort studies. Surveys (questionnaires) are usually quantitative .

How do you conduct a prospective cohort study?

Cohort study

1. Identify the study subjects; i.e. the cohort population.
2. Obtain baseline data on the exposure; measure the exposure at the start.
3. Select a sub-classification of the cohort—the unexposed control cohort—to be the comparison group.
4. Follow up; measure the outcomes using records, interviews or examinations.

Why are follow up studies good?

Follow-up is generally done to increase the overall effectiveness of the research effort. Follow-up may also be conducted as a normal component of the research design. Or, it could even be conducted subsequent to the original research to ascertain if an intervention has changed the lives of the study participants.

When is exposure information collected in a prospective study?

In contrast, exposure information is collected at the beginning of prospective cohort studies before any subjects have developed any of the outcomes or interest, and the ‘at risk’ period begins after baseline exposure data is collected and extends into the future.

How are cohort studies improve the accuracy of exposure measurement?

Long-term cohort studies which cover the etiologically relevant time period could improve the accuracy of measures of exposures by use of repeated biologic measures or repeated updates of self-reported exposures. Measurement error also can be reduced by judicious choice of a cohort to study and by careful attention to quality control procedures.

Which is a good follow up for a prospective cohort study?

In general, large prospective cohort studies are doing well if they can maintain follow-up of 80-90% of their sample for long periods. As an illustration of how bias can be introduced with loss to follow-up, consider the following example.

How is the outcome of a retrospective study determined?

Retrospective studies also group subjects based on their exposure status and compare their incidence of disease. However, in this case both exposure status and outcome are ascertained retrospectively. In essence, the investigators jump back in time to identify a useful cohort which was initially free of disease and ‘at risk.’