Concept of Observational Study: Advantages and Disadvantages

Meaning of An Observational Study

When a research study is made, people usually read about the study report and do not pay attention to how the study was designed. But, in order to understand the research study findings, it is necessary to know a bit about study design. One such used in research work is observational study. An observational study is portrayed by its factual and segment technique, making it a generally utilized instrument in science.

Types of Observational Studies

• Cohort study: This type of study is used, generally to check out the causes of disease occurrence and to find its connection between risk factors and health outcomes.
• Case-control study: In such studies, researchers study people with an existing health problem and without the problem. They then compare them with respect to an exposure.
• Cross-sectional study: In this type of observational study, researchers record information about their sample without interfering with their environment. Here, different groups are compared over the same period of time.
• Longitudinal Study: Here, researchers observe study subjects over a long period of time.

Advantages of observational studies

• You get a real and more appropriate approach which reduces the researcher’s bias.
• Observational studies are important in those areas where other research methods v

Disadvantages of Observational Studies

• The researcher has no control over the classification of the study groups.
• It is possible to find cause and effect relationships even when they do not exist.
• It leads to misunderstandings when it becomes a problem for researcher to isolate the dependent variable.