Cohort studies are a type of medical research used to investigate the causes of disease, establishing links between risk factors and health outcomes.
Cohort studies are usually forward-looking – that is, they are ‘prospective’ studies, or planned in advance and carried out over a future period of time.
A research question is raised – a hypothesis is formed about the potential causes of a disease – and the researchers then observe a group of people, the cohort, over a period, often a very long one, to detect any changes in health in relation to predetermined risk factors.
For example, the scientists may ask participants to record their lifestyle factors over the course of time, and then analyze the way these correlate with disease.
- Cohort studies are used by epidemiologists looking into the factors that affect the health and illness of populations.
- Other terms for cohort studies include: incidence, longitudinal, forward-looking, follow-up, concurrent, and prospective.
‘Etiology’ is the term doctors use for studying the causes of disease. When doctors talk about the etiology of a condition they mean the cause, and they may describe the mechanism by which a cause leads to a disease effect.