EDUCATIONAL

1. JIMMA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF SPOET ACADEMY
DEPARTEMENT OF SPORT ACADEMY
PROGRAM OF SPORT MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT : RESEARCH METHOLOGY IN SPORT SCIENCE
TOPICS: LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH DESIGN
SUBIMITTED TO: DR. MELKAMU D.
BY: GENET GEBABO
JIMMA, ETHIOPIA
MARCH 2023

2. Outline of the presentation
• What is longitudinal research design
• Types of longitudinal research design
• Characteristic of longitudinal research design
• Advantages and Disadvantages of conducting longitudinal
surveys
• Types of surveys that used for a longitudinal study
• Cross-sectional study vs longitudinal study
• Data collection methods
• Analysis of longitudinal data
• Example of the longitudinal study

3. Objective
• At the end of this session the learner, will be able to;-
 Define longitudinal Research design.
 List Characteristic of longitudinal research design.
 Differentiate longitudinal study from Cross-sectional study .
 Discuss Data collection methods.

4. What is longitudinal Research
design?
• A longitudinal study is a research conducted over an extended
period of time.
• It is mostly used in medical research and other areas like
psychology or sociology.
• When using this method, a longitudinal survey can pay off
with actionable insights when you have the time to engage in a
long-term research project.

5. Longitudinal study cont.
• Longitudinal studies often use survey to collect data that is either
qualitative or quantitative.
• Additionally, in a longitudinal study, a survey creator does not interfere
with survey participants.
• Instead, the survey creator distributes questionnaires over time to observe
changes in participants, behaviors, or attitudes.
• Many medical studies are longitudinal; researchers note and collect data
from the same subjects over what can be many years.

6. Types of longitudinal studies
• Longitudinal studies are versatile, repeatable, and able to
account for quantitative and qualitative data.
• Consider the three major types of longitudinal studies for
future research:
1 panel study
2 cohort study
3 Retrospective study

7. Panel study
• Panel study: involves a sample of people from a more
significant population and is conducted at specified intervals
for a more extended period.
• Most panel studies are designed for quantitative analysis,
though they may also be used to collect qualitative data and
analysis.
• These studies measures peoples behaviors over time,
specifically their opinions, feelings, emotions and thoughts.
• Panel studies are a type of prospective study.

8. Advantages of panel studies
• It helps you identify the causal factors of changes in research
sample.
• It also allows you to witness the impact of these changes on
the properties of the variables and information needed at
different points of their existing relationship.
• Panel studies can be used to obtain historical data from the
sample population.

9. Disadvantages of panel studies
• Conducting a panel study is pretty expensive
in terms of time and resources.
• It might be challenging to gather the same
quality of data from respondents at every
interval.

10. Cont.
• When To Use Panel Study
• If you want to have first-hand, factual information
about the changes in a sample population, then you
should opt for a panel study.
• For example, medical researchers rely on panel
studies to identify the causes of age-related changes
and their consequences.

11. Cont.

12. Retrospective study
A Retrospective study A retrospective study uses
already existing data, collected during previously
conducted research with similar methodology and
variables.
• While doing a retrospective study, the researcher uses
an administrative database, pre-existing medical
records, or one-to-one interviews

13. Advantages of Retrospective study
• Retrospective studies happen at a relatively smaller
scale and do not require much time to complete.
• It helps you to study rare outcomes when prospective
surveys are not feasible.

14. Cont.
• When To Use Retrospective Study
• Retrospective studies are best for research contexts
where you want to quickly estimate an exposure’s
effect on an outcome.
• It also helps you to discover preliminary measures of
association in your data.
• Medical researchers adopt retrospective study
methods when they need to research rare conditions.

15. Disadvantages of Retrospective
study
• It is easily affected by recall bias or misclassification
bias.
• It often depends on convenience sampling which is
prone to selection bias.

16. Cohort study
• A Cohort Study samples a cohort (a group of people who
typically experience the same event at a given point in time).
These studies are typically used among medical researchers
tend to conduct cohort studies
• Some might consider clinical trials similar to cohort studies.
• Research observe a population based on the shared experience
of a specific events such as
• Birth
• Geographic location ,or
• Historical experience

17. Advantages of cohort study
• It allows you to study multiple outcomes that can be
associated with one risk factor.
• Cohort studies are designed to help you measure all
variables of interest.

18. Cont..
• When To Use Cohort Study
• You should conduct a cohort study if you’re looking to
establish a causal relationship within your data sets.
• For example, in medical research, cohort studies investigate
the causes of disease and establish links between risk factors
and effects.

19. Cont.

20. Disadvantages of cohort study
• Cohort studies are expensive to conduct.
• Throughout the process the researcher has less
control over variables.

21. Trend study
• Trends most common types of a longitudinal studies
in mass media research.
• Trend study samples different groups of people at
different times from the same population.
• Trend studies are common around presidential
election time.

22. Advantages of trend study
• These helps to investigate a sample from the general
population over time with respect to some
phenomenon.
• These studies permit research to examine patterns
and rates of change and to make predictions about
future direction based on previously identified
patterns and rates of change.

23. Disadvantage of Trend studies.
• If data are unreliable, false, trends will show up in the
results.
• Large sample size.
• It is very difficult to determine the cause of a trend .
• Errors
• distortions

24. Characteristics of longitudinal
studies
• 1 Non-interference: In longitudinal studies, the
researcher doesn’t interfere with the participants’ day-
to-day activities in any way. When it’s time to collect
their responses the researcher administers surveys
with qualitative and quantitative questions.

25. Cont.
• 2 Observational: As we mentioned earlier,
longitudinal studies involve observing the research
participants throughout the study and recording any
changes in traits that you notice.
• 3 Timelines: A longitudinal study can span weeks,
months, years, or even decades.
• This dramatically contrasts what is obtainable in
cross–sectional studies that only last for a short time.

26. Advantages and disadvantages of
conducting longitudinal surveys
• As we’ve demonstrated, a longitudinal study is useful in
science, medicine, and many other fields.
• There are many reasons why a researcher might want to
conduct a longitudinal study.
• One of the essential reasons is, longitudinal studies give
unique insights that many other types of research fail to
provide.

27. Advantages of longitudinal studies
• Greater validation: For a long-term study to be successful,
objectives and rules must be established from the beginning.
• As it is a long-term study, its authenticity is verified in
advance, which makes the results have a high level of validity
• Unique data: Most research studies collect short-term data to
determine the cause and effect of what is being investigated.
Longitudinal surveys follow the same principles but the data
collection period is different.
• Long-term relationships cannot be discovered in a short-term
investigation, but short-term relationships can be monitored in
a long-term investigation.

28. cont.
• Allow identifying trends: Whether in medicine, psychology,
or sociology, the long-term design of a longitudinal study
enables trends and relationships to be found within the data
collected in real time.
• The previous data can be applied to know future results and
have great discoveries.
• Longitudinal surveys are flexible: Although a longitudinal
study can be created to study a specific data point, the data
collected can show unforeseen patterns or relationships that
can be significant.
• Because this is a long-term study, the researchers have a
flexibility that is not possible with other research formats.

29. Disadvantages of longitudinal studies
• Research time
• The main disadvantage of longitudinal surveys is that long-
term research is more likely to give unpredictable results.
• For example, if the same person is not found to update the
study, the research cannot be carried out.
• It may also take several years before the data begins to
produce observable patterns or relationships that can be
monitored.
• An unpredictability factor is always present
It must be taken into account that the sample can be lost over
time. Because longitudinal studies involve the same subjects
over a long period of time.
•

30. cont.
• Large samples are needed for the investigation to be
meaningful
To develop relationships or patterns, a large amount of data
must be collected and extracted to generate results.
• Higher costs
• Without a doubt, the longitudinal survey is more complex and
expensive. Being a long-term form of research, the costs of the
study will span years or decades, compared to other forms of
research that can be completed in a smaller fraction of the
time.

31. Types of surveys that use a longitudinal
study
• Market trends and brand awareness: Use a market research survey and
marketing survey to identify market trends and develop brand awareness
Through these surveys, businesses or organizations can learn what
customers want and what they will discard.
• This study can be carried over time to assess market trends repeatedly, as
they are volatile and tend to change constantly.
• Product feedback: If a business or brand launches a new product and
wants to know how it is faring with consumers, product feedback surveyare
agreat option .

32. cont.
• get to know the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction among its
customers.
Customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction surveys help an
organization.
• A longitudinal survey can gain feedback from new and regular
customers for as long as you’d like to collect it, so it’s useful whether
you’re starting a business or hoping to make some improvements to an
established brand.
• Employee engagement: When you check in regularly over time with a
longitudinal survey, you’ll get a big-picture perspective of your
company culture.

33. Longitudinal studies vs. Cross-sectional
studies
• Longitudinal studies are often confused with cross-
sectional studies.
• Unlike longitudinal studies, where the research
variables can change during a study, a cross-sectional
study observes a single instance with all variables
remaining the same throughout the study.
A longitudinal study may follow up on a cross-
sectional study to investigate the relationship between
the variables more thoroughly.

34. Longitudinal study
• A longitudinal study requires an investigator to
observe the participants at different time intervals.
• In longitudinal studies, only one variable can be
observed or studied.
• Longitudinal studies tend to be more expensive
• Longitudinal studies can offer researchers a cause
and effect relationship.
• Longitudinal studies take a long time, form years to even a
few decades

35. Cross- sectional study
• A cross-sectional study is conducted over a specified
period of time.
• Cross-sectional studies cannot offer researchers a cause-
and-effect relationship.
• With cross-sectional studies, different variables can be
observed at a single moment.
• Cross-sectional studies are more accessible for companies
and researchers.
• Cross-sectional study is a quickly to conduct compared
to longitudinal.

36. Cross-sectional vs longitudinal cont.

37. Data collection methods.
• Questionnaires
• Cognitive assessments
• Clinical measurements
• Qualitative information
• Linked administrative (gov’t) records.

38. Analysis of longitudinal data.
• Statistical testing of longitudinal data requires
consideration of numerous factors.
• The liked nature of the data for an individual
• The coexistence of fixed and dynamic variable
• The potential for difference in time interval between data
instance.
• The likely presence of missing data
• In cross-sectional studies, one can only estimate between
subject difference .

39. Cont.
• In longitudinal studies ,we can also assess with in
subject changes over time.
• Model correlation between repeated measures and
relationship predictors and out comes.

40. Longitudinal study examples
• A researcher wants to know the effects of a low-carb diet on weight
loss.
• So, he gathers a group of obese men and kicks off the systematic
investigation using his preferred longitudinal study method.
• He records information like how much they weigh, the number of
carbs in their diet, and the like at different points.
• All these data help him to arrive at valid research outcomes.
• Use for Free: Macros Calories Diet Plan Template

41. Example cont.
You decide to study how a particular diet affects
athletes’ performance over time.
First, you gather your sample population,
establish a baseline for the research, and observe
and record the required data.

42. Thank you!!