Description

Conducting substudies in a longitudinal research project

JENNY HELMAN, DEBORAH LOXTON, LYN ADAMSON, ANNA GRAVES AND JENNIFER POWERS

Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT

Longitudinal studies often include substudies which involve collection of specific and more detailed data from subsets of study participants. The longitudinal study framework adds methodological strength to these substudies through enabling sampling of individuals with exposures or outcomes of interest, and through retrospective and prospective access to longitudinal data. However, while there are many advantages to these studies, there are also a number of potential disadvantages. Here we describe some of the considerations when designing and approving a substudy and some of the procedures to be applied to ensure that the substudy runs well and has minimal impact on study participants.

Keywords: longitudinal studies; substudies; piggyback studies; supplementary studies; research methods