Cross-sectional study is one of the classic research design methods, which is widely used in clinical research. Cross-sectional study designs are used to answer a large number of scientific questions in general practice research. This includes not only the investigation of population health characteristics, disease characteristics or health service status, but also a variety of research scenarios such as the construction of disease screening and diagnosis methods for community people. Therefore, this paper will sort out and summarize the key points of cross-sectional research in the field of general medicine, and provide reference for future research work. In the field of general practice, cross-sectional studies can be used for status description, comparative analysis, correlation factor analysis and exploration of community screening diagnostic methods. The clinical development of cross-sectional studies should include two stages, study design and study implementation. The design stage includes accurate extraction of study objectives, defining clinical factors such as study population, study factors and outcome indicators, and determining the method of sample acquisition, determining the basis for sample size and rational statistical analysis strategies. In the implementation stage, complete research plan and case report form should be used to present research design ideas, and data collection should be carried out under the premise of ethical approval. Meanwhile, quality of data management and statistical analysis methods in the plan should be strictly implem.

横断面研究是经典的研究设计方法之一，在临床各个专业中均有广泛的应用。在全科医学研究中大量科学问题的解答采用了横断面研究设计。这其中不仅包括了对人群健康特征，疾病特征或卫生服务现状的调查研究，还包括了面向社区人群的疾病筛查诊断方法构建等多种研究场景。在全科医学领域中，横断面研究可以做现况描述和比较分析，关联因素分析以及社区筛查诊断方法探索。开展横断面研究应包括研究设计和研究实施两个阶段，研究设计包括准确提炼研究目标，明确研究人群，研究因素及结局指标等临床要素以及确定样本获取方式，明确样本量的确定依据及合理的统计分析策略等方法学要素。研究实施，则需要通过完备的研究方案和病例报告表呈现研究设计思路，在伦理批准的前提下开展数据收集工作，同时注重数据管理工作质量并严格执行方案中的统计分析方法，求证医学问题。横断面研究的特点是相比于随访观察研究所需要的研究周期相对较短，不同基础的研究团队都能找到适合的研究方向，通过了解健康医疗现状，从探讨关联因素创建筛查方法等角度，服务社区医疗。