Observational Studies


Observational studies are a type of study design in which researchers observe and measure the characteristics and behaviors of a group of individuals without manipulating any variables. These studies are often used in epidemiology, social sciences, and healthcare research to investigate the relationship between risk factors and health outcomes. Observational studies can be either prospective or retrospective, depending on whether data is collected in real-time or after the fact. They can also be either cross-sectional or longitudinal, depending on whether data is collected at a single point in time or over a period of time. Observational studies are useful for generating hypotheses and identifying potential risk factors, but they cannot establish causality. Therefore, researchers must be cautious when interpreting the results of observational studies.


Your Previous Searches
Random Picks

  • Foreign Key Constraints: Foreign key constraints are rules that enforce the referential integrity between tables in a relational database. They ensure that the data in one table that refers to data in another table is valid and consistent. In other words, foreign k ... Read More >>
  • Polymorphism: Polymorphism is a concept in object-oriented programming that allows objects of different classes to be treated as if they are objects of the same class. In other words, it is the ability of an object to take on many forms. Polymorphism is ... Read More >>
  • Garbage Collection: Garbage Collection is an automatic memory management process that identifies and releases unused memory in a program. It is a technique used by programming languages to automatically free up memory that is no longer being used by the progra ... Read More >>
Top News

OpenAI has $20 billion to win or lose in its race to become a for-profit...

The ChatGPT maker has announced $40 billion in new funding, but $20 billion of that will depend on its controversial for-profit restructuring....

News Source: Business Insider on 2025-04-01

Meta's head of AI research announces departure...

Meta’s head of artificial intelligence research announced Tuesday that she will be leaving the company....

News Source: NBC News on 2025-04-01

Meta loses its AI research head, as billions in investments hang in the balance...

Joelle Pineau will leave the company in May. Pineau's successor remains unclear....

News Source: Business Insider on 2025-04-01

With a TikTok ban looming, Trump signals a deal will come before April 5 deadlin...

As the deadline to strike a deal over TikTok approaches this week, President Donald Trump has signaled that he is confident his administration can broker an agreement with ByteDance, the social media ...

News Source: ABC News on 2025-04-01

It's not just tariffs. 4 other issues are battering stock market sentiment....

While tariffs are front and center for markets, a handful of other issues is weighing on investor confidence as the second quarter kicks off....

News Source: Business Insider on 2025-04-01