Setia Maninder Singh
Department of Epidemiologist, MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Indian J Dermatol. 2016 May-Jun;61(3):261-4. doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.182410.
Cross-sectional study design is a type of observational study design. In a cross-sectional study, the investigator measures the outcome and the exposures in the study participants at the same time. Unlike in case-control studies (participants selected based on the outcome status) or cohort studies (participants selected based on the exposure status), the participants in a cross-sectional study are just selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria set for the study. Once the participants have been selected for the study, the investigator follows the study to assess the exposure and the outcomes. Cross-sectional designs are used for population-based surveys and to assess the prevalence of diseases in clinic-based samples. These studies can usually be conducted relatively faster and are inexpensive. They may be conducted either before planning a cohort study or a baseline in a cohort study. These types of designs will give us information about the prevalence of outcomes or exposures; this information will be useful for designing the cohort study. However, since this is a 1-time measurement of exposure and outcome, it is difficult to derive causal relationships from cross-sectional analysis. We can estimate the prevalence of disease in cross-sectional studies. Furthermore, we will also be able to estimate the odds ratios to study the association between exposure and the outcomes in this design.
横断面研究设计是观察性研究设计的一种类型。在横断面研究中，研究者同时测量研究参与者的结局和暴露情况。与病例对照研究（根据结局状态选择参与者）或队列研究（根据暴露状态选择参与者）不同，横断面研究的参与者只是根据为该研究设定的纳入和排除标准来选择。一旦为该研究选定了参与者，研究者就对该研究进行跟踪以评估暴露情况和结局。横断面设计用于基于人群的调查以及评估基于临床样本的疾病患病率。这些研究通常可以相对较快地进行且成本低廉。它们可以在计划队列研究之前进行，也可以作为队列研究的基线。这些类型的设计将为我们提供有关结局或暴露患病率的信息；此信息对于设计队列研究将是有用的。然而，由于这是对暴露和结局的一次性测量，因此很难从横断面分析中得出因果关系。我们可以在横断面研究中估计疾病的患病率。此外，在这种设计中，我们还能够估计优势比以研究暴露与结局之间的关联。
