What type of research method does the following statement describe? Explain and defend your analysis.
Data will be collected from the health and safety records from the past five years for the 50 fitness centers used in the study. The fitness centers are to be chosen randomly from a tri-state area including the states Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The requirements for the fitness centers are that they have a minimum of 250 members and be open a minimum of 100 hours a week. This is to ensure that there will be an equal amount of data from each fitness center. We intend to predict the safety rates of the 50 fitness centers.