Skip to contentScholarGate
LibraryBookshelfDeskReview StudioAssistant
Sign in
Cross-Sectional Study Design/Evidence
Method evidence record

Cross-Sectional Study Design

A cross-sectional study (or prevalence study) measures exposure and outcome simultaneously at a single point in time, producing a 'snapshot' of a population. Respondents are recruited and surveyed (or examined) on the same occasion, capturing current prevalence of both exposure and disease. Cross-sectional studies are simple, quick, and inexpensive, making them popular for needs assessments, surveillance, and generating hypotheses—though they cannot establish causality due to lack of temporal sequence.

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Source record

Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.

Cross-Sectional Survey or Prevalence Study
Taxonomic method record · process-pipeline / clinical-research
  • Kelsey, J. L., Whittemore, A. S., Evans, A. S., & Thompson, W. D. (1996). Methods in Observational Epidemiology (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. · ISBN 978-0195083299
  • Rothman, K. J., Lash, T. L., & Greenland, S. (2008). Modern Epidemiology (3rd ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. · ISBN 978-0781755657
  • Lynn, P. (2009). Methodology of longitudinal surveys. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics, 1(3), 369–379. · URL
Open full method

Curated claims

Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.

No curated claims yet

This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.

Related methods

Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.

Taxonomic bucketCase-Control Study Designmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketCohort Study Designmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.

Evidence status

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Bibliographic sources are present. Claim-level evidence review has not been performed.

Sources

3 recorded citations, copied from the method source record.

Actions

Open method page
ScholarGate

A content-first reference library for research methods — what each one is, how it works, and where it comes from.

Open data (CC-BY)

Explore

  • Library
  • Search the library…
  • Browse by field
  • Fields
  • Journey
  • Compare
  • Which method?

Reference

  • Subjects
  • Atlas
  • Glossary
  • Methodology
  • Philosophy

Your tools

  • Bookshelf
  • Desk
  • Chat

Company

  • About
  • Pricing
  • Contact
  • Suggest a method

Entries are compiled from published sources for reference. Verifying the accuracy and suitability of any information for your own use remains your responsibility.

© 2026 ScholarGate · A research-method reference library
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Terms
  • Delete account