Chapter 9 Vocab Flashcards
the public health science of epidemiology had made contributions too…… (5)
- understanding factors that contribute to health/disease
- development of health promotion and disease prevention
- detection and characterization of emerging infectious agents
- evaluation of health services and policies
- practice of nursing in public health
What is epidemiology?
the study of the distribution of determinants of health and disease in human population…. the principle science of public health
Sir Edwin Chadwick:
1800-1890, United Kingdom
Stated the importance of making sewage pipes to be air tight in order to avoid soiling fresh water
John Snow
1813-1858
conducted first cholera outbreak investigation in London by mapping it to a certain location.
father of modern epidemiology
Florence Nightingale
-sanitation
descriptive epidemiology:
describes what is going on
what 3 things is descriptive epidemiology based on?
person, place and time
What is analytic epidemiology?
examines complex relationships among the many determinants of the disease. what is causing it?
what is an observational study?
does not allow the investigator to control exposure or control or limit other variables that may influence disease
what study designs does a observational study include? (3)
cross sectional, retrospective, prospective
What is a cross sectional study?
a study that examines relationships between potential causal factors and disease at a specific time, association
ex: television and obesity
What is a prospective study?
a study that monitors a group of disease-free individuals to determine if and when disease occurs
looking at the future, must be disease free
what is a retrospective study?
a study that compares individuals with a particular condition or disease with those who did not have the disease
looks back in time, already has the condition or has died from it
what is the purpose of epidemiology?
- determine causes of health and disease
- monitor health of population
- identify determinates of health and disease in community
- investigate/evaluate interventions to prevent disease and maintain health
epidemiology triangle:
host, environment, agent
helps us look at how each variable impacts illness
by changing one variable, we can change rate of disease (for better or worse)
what is the ecological model?
looks at both social context and genetic or molecular level
what are statistics used for?
to summarize the data collected thru disease surveillance or an outbreak investigation
what is a ratio?
comparison of any 2 values, nonrelated subjects
or rate of events, items, persons etc in one group / # or rate of events, items, persons, etc in another group x 10n
what is a proportion?
comparison of a part to the whole. the numerator is included in the denominator.
what is rates?
how fast something will happen
what are the two main types of morbidity rates?
incidence and prevalence
what is incidence?
measures only new events of interest, measured only within a population and there is always a specified amount of time
what is the most sensitive indicator of the changing health of a population?
incidence
what is prevalance?
often used to look at chronic illness, number of existing cases / total population x 10n
morbidity vs mortality
illness vs death
case fatality
deaths from a specific disease
crude fatality
deaths from any cause
age specific
deaths of a person of a given age
infant mortality
death of an infant under 1 year per number of live births
primary prevention
preventing something from happening before it does, vaccines
secondary prevention
screenings, early diagnosis
tertiary prevention
physical and occupation therapy, rehabilitation services
examples of nursing positions in epidemiology
- nurse epidemiologist
- school nurse
- communicable disease nurse
- environmental risk communications
- hospital infections control nurse
- all nursing documentation on patient charts and records is important source of data for epidemiologic reviews
