השוואת שיטות

	תכנון אקס-פוסט-פקטו מבוסס פאנל	מחקר עוקבה
תחום	תכנון מחקר	אפידמיולוגיה
משפחה	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
שנת המקור	1950s–1970s (synthesized from ex post facto tradition and panel survey research)	Mid-20th century (formal epidemiological design codified ~1950s)
הוגה השיטה	Developed from Kerlinger's ex post facto framework combined with panel survey methodology (Lazarsfeld, Kerlinger)	Doll & Hill (British Doctors Study, 1951); Snow (cholera, 1854)
סוג	Non-experimental longitudinal observational design	Observational longitudinal study design
מקור מכונן	Kerlinger, F. N. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research (3rd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN: 978-0030417511	Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern Epidemiology (3rd ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN: 978-0781755641
כינויים	panel ex post facto study, longitudinal causal-comparative design, retrospective panel design, panel causal-comparative study	longitudinal study, follow-up study, panel study, incidence study
קשורות	2	6
תקציר	A panel-based ex post facto design tracks the same group of participants across multiple time points to examine how pre-existing differences in an independent variable — one the researcher did not manipulate — are associated with changes in an outcome over time. It merges the temporal depth of panel methodology with the causal-comparative logic of ex post facto research, enabling stronger causal inference than a single cross-sectional snapshot while remaining fully non-experimental.	A cohort study assembles a group of individuals who share a common starting point — typically freedom from the outcome of interest — and follows them over time to observe who develops the outcome. By comparing incidence rates between exposed and unexposed subgroups, researchers can estimate relative risk and absolute risk differences. Cohort studies are the gold-standard observational design for measuring disease incidence and establishing temporal relationships between exposure and outcome.