Complete 2 page APA formatted essay: Use a Longitudinal study method to analyze the effects of nutrition.The paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal research and gives rationale for u

Complete 2 page APA formatted essay: Use a Longitudinal study method to analyze the effects of nutrition.

The paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal research and gives rationale for using it in studying effects of nutrition.

Longitudinal studies relates to repeated observational research over a longer period with the aim of establishing developmental trends across subjects lifespan. It entails situations where measurement of sample of individuals occur more than one time-point within the period of study. The study recruits larger number subjects and tracks them for longer periods sometimes for decades. Studying same subjects over a longer period enables researchers to eliminate explicitly influence of cultural differences on the study results. Longitudinal study method is imperative in enabling researchers to monitor changes within study subjects’ overtime, a property that enables development and lifespan studies. However, longitudinal research method presents various challenges including the enormous amount of time consumable for comprehensive research, expensiveness, and withdrawal behavior of subjects.

It is indispensable to understand that there exists several potential strengths of longitudinal research. First, longitudinal study enables researchers to measure change within subjects to enable them identify various precursors of developmental psychology (Anstey and Hofer 3). In addition, ability to measure change within overtime would also enable researchers to evaluate treatment outcomes employed in the study. Evaluation of food treatments on study subjects is imperative in establishing inherent effects of nutrition on individuals recruited within the study. Moreover, ability of longitudinal research in enabling evaluation during progression of study is also imperious for researchers to conduct tracking of at-risks groups. Evaluation of at-risks groups during the study enables researchers to eliminate risks and mitigate potential influence