Linganisha mbinu

	Utafiti wa Cohort	Utafiti Mfuatano	Utafiti wa Utafiti
Nyanja	Epidemiolojia	Muundo wa Utafiti	Muundo wa Utafiti
Familia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Mwaka wa asili	Mid-20th century (formal epidemiological design codified ~1950s)	Late 19th–early 20th century; methodologically codified through the 20th century	Late 19th century; methodologically systematised 1940s–1960s
Mwanzilishi	Doll & Hill (British Doctors Study, 1951); Snow (cholera, 1854)	No single originator; foundational methodological treatments by Stuart Menard and Judith Singer & John Willett	Francis Galton, Charles Booth, and early social statisticians; systematised by Paul Lazarsfeld and colleagues at Columbia in the 1940s
Aina	Observational longitudinal study design	Quantitative (or mixed) observational research design	Quantitative (and mixed) non-experimental design
Chanzo asilia	Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern Epidemiology (3rd ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN: 978-0781755641	Menard, S. (2002). Longitudinal Research (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-0761922841	Fowler, F. J. (2014). Survey Research Methods (5th ed.). Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-1452259000
Majina mbadala	longitudinal study, follow-up study, panel study, incidence study	longitudinal study, longitudinal design, prospective longitudinal study, repeated-measures observational study	survey methodology, questionnaire research, survey design, survey study
Zinazohusiana	6	4	4
Muhtasari	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.	Longitudinal research is an observational design in which the same participants, groups, or units are measured repeatedly over an extended period. Rather than capturing a single snapshot, it tracks change, stability, and temporal sequencing of variables — making it the primary non-experimental strategy for studying development, growth, decline, and the unfolding of causal processes across time.	Survey research is a quantitative (and sometimes mixed-methods) design in which a researcher collects standardised self-report data from a sample drawn from a defined population, using a questionnaire or structured interview. It is the dominant non-experimental strategy for describing population characteristics, estimating prevalence, mapping attitude distributions, and testing bivariate or multivariate associations across social, behavioural, and health sciences.