A research company uses a device to record the viewing habits of about 12 comma 50012,500 households, and the data collected over the next 2 yearsover the next 2 years will be used to determinenbsp whether nbsp whether the proportion of households tuned to a particular sportssports programnbsp decreases.

cross-sectional study

Explanation:

A cross-sectional study is an observational research that has to do with data analysis of variables or sane set of variable obtained at a particular point of time (a snap shot)across a sample population. It is also called cross-sectional analysis, transverse study or prevalence study.

In this study type, the variable is said to be constant. It can either be a descriptive (to show the frequency and distribution of the study topic in a particular area) cross-sectional study or an anakytical cross-sectional study (to show the relationship between two related or unrelated variables).

As in this case study, if a significant amount of the population view a particular sport program more than the others, the researcher can conduct further studies to understand the reason behind the variation in populations that viewed a particular sport program – like a longitudinal study.  

In a cross-sectional study, to determine the prevalence, multiple parameters are estimated simultaneously – questions, observations, and answers. Prevalence = amount of cases at a certain period in time / population of people at that certain period.

The cross-sectional studies is swift to perform, variblels are retrieve once, help determine different outcomes with the prevalence value too, can be used for descriptive analysis and to promote further research.