Definitions
Per PubMed/MeSH: Prospective Studies: Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.
Cancer.gov: prospective cohort study: A research study that follows over time groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic (for example, female nurses who smoke and those who do not smoke) and compares them for a particular outcome (such as lung cancer)
Sum it up: An observational study, the goal of a prospective study is often to examine a potential relationship. Prospective studies are often cohort studies, and sometimes studies are labelled "prospective cohort studies."
Examples
Example in an elementary school classroom: If we recorded which students ate breakfast and which did not, and watched them for a month while recording the attention span of each group
Example in the literature: Prospective study of meat intake and dietary nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines and risk of adult glioma https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728643/
Where This MeSH Term Can Be Found in the MeSH 'Tree'
Prospective Studies can be found under Cohort studies, which is under Epidemiological studies
Consider Asking the Researcher
Consider asking the researcher:
- if you should search on Cohort studies as well. Prospective studies are often cohort studies, and indexers may have tagged them incorrectly.
