One of the advantages of prospective cohort studies is they can help determine risk factors for being infected with a new disease because they are a longitudinal observation over time, and the collection of results is at regular time intervals, so recall error is minimized.

What are the advantages of a prospective cohort study?

A major advantage of the cohort study design is the ability to study multiple outcomes that can be associated with a single exposure or multiple exposures in a single study. Even the combined effect of multiple exposures on the outcome can be determined. Cohort study designs also allow for the study of rare exposures.

What are the advantages of a prospective study?

A prospective cohort study provides clarity of the temporal sequence. A prospective cohort study can more clearly indicate the temporal sequence between an exposure and an outcome. This result is possible because there are definitive behaviors or characteristics available for researchers to observe.