Cross-sectional study (design)

A type of research design involving the collection of information from any given sample of elements selected from the population of interest at a single point in time. They may be either single cross-sectional or multiple cross-sectional. In single cross-sectional designs only one sample of elements is drawn from the target population and information is obtained from this sample only once. In multiple cross-sectional designs there are two or more samples of respondents, and information from each sample is drawn only once