What type of study involved face-to-face interviews to explore socio-economic impacts on female obesity?

The choice of an epidemiological study is appropriate in this context because such studies are specifically designed to investigate the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations. When exploring socio-economic impacts on female obesity through face-to-face interviews, the goal is often to identify patterns, relationships, and associations between socio-economic factors and the prevalence of obesity among women.

Epidemiological studies can take various forms, including cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies, but the emphasis here is on understanding how various societal factors contribute to health outcomes over a population. The use of interviews allows researchers to gather qualitative and quantitative data, which can reveal insights into the complex interplay of socio-economic status and health.

In contrast, clinical trials are typically experimental and involve interventions to determine the effects of specific treatments on health outcomes, rather than observational data collection. Experimental studies also focus on the manipulation of variables under controlled settings. Cross-sectional studies, although also observational and useful for looking at relationships at one point in time, do not necessarily explore the socio-economic impacts in depth as they may lack comprehensive contextual understanding typically sought in epidemiological studies.