Descriptive Epidemiology (13) Flashcards
What variables does descriptive epidemiology assess?
classifies the occurrence of disease according to:
person
place
time
What is descriptive epidemiology?
one that is concerned with characterizing the amount and distribution of health and disease within a population
- prevention of disease
- design of interventions
-conduct of additional research
What are uses of descriptive epidemiologic studies?
permit evaluation of trends in heath and disease
provide a basis for planing, provision, and evaluation of health services
identify problems to be studied by analytic methods and suggest areas that may be fruitful for further investigation
What are types of descriptive epidemiologic studies?
case reports
case series
cross-sectional studies
What is a case report? What type of epidemiology?
accounts of a single occurrence of a noteworthy health-related incident or of a small collection of such events
descriptive
What is a case series? What type of epidemiology?
a larger collection of cases of disease, often grouped consecutively and listing common features or characteristics of affected patients
descriptive
What are the advantages of case reports and series?
can aggregate cases from disparate sources to generate hypotheses and describe new syndromes
simple to write, simple to read, contains lots of information
What are limitations to case reports and series?
cannot test for statistical association because there is no relevant comparison group
based on individual exposure (may simply be coincidental)
cannot establish causality
What is a cross-sectional study? What type of epidemiology?
a type of investigation that examines the relationship between diseases (or other health-related characteristics) and other variables of interest as they exist in a defined population at one particular time
a type of prevalence survey or study
Comparing beer and obesity is an example of a ____ study
cross-sectional
Descriptive epidemiology and descriptive studies provide a basis for generating ______
hypotheses
Descriptive epidemiologic studies connect intimately with the process of _______
epidemiologic interference
________ is initiated with descriptive observations
Epidemiologic interference
What is the most important factor to consider when describing occurrence of disease or illness? Why?
age
age-specific disease rates usually show greater variation than rates defined by almost any other personal attribute
What is sex regarding epidemiologic studies?
epidemiologic studies have shown sex differences in a wide scope of health phenomena including morbidity and mortality
Race/Ethnicity is [descriptive/analytical] epidemiology
descriptive
What are limitations to race/ethnicity?
somewhat ambiguous classification
tends to overlap with nativity and religion
What is nativity?
place of origin of the individual or his or her relatives
foreign-born
native-born
What is socioeconomic status?
descriptive term for a person’s position in a society
often formulated as a composite measure of the following dimensions:
- income level
- education level
- type of occupation
- single dimension can be used
T/F: Those in lowest SES positions are confronted with excesses of orbit and mortality from numerous cases
TRUE
On the ___ level, regional differences may affect the prevalence and incidence of disease
national
What are urban-rural differences?
show variations in morbidity and mortality related to environmental and lifestyle issues
What are localized patterns of disease?
associated with specific environmental conditions that may exist in a particular geographic area
What are secular trends?
refer to gradual changes in the frequency of disease over long time periods
What are cyclic (seasonal) trends?
increases and decreases in the frequency of a disease or other phenomenon over a period several years or within a year
What is this graph depicting?
seasonal trend
(annual pneumonia-influenza deaths)
What is this graph depicting?
seasonal (cyclic) trends
(anthrax number of reported cases by year)
What are possible reasons for changes in trends?
actual reality
artifactual - errors in numerator
errors in denominator - over or under estimation of the population at risk
What is clustering?
a closely grouped series of events or cases of a disease or other health-related phenomena with well-defined distribution patterns in relation to time or place or both
What does endemic mean?
the habitual presence (or usual occurrence) of a disease within a given geographic area
What does sporadic mean?
disease occurring singly
widely scattered - NOT epidemic or endemic
incidence and prevalence of sporadic disease are near ZERO
human rabies
What are the forms of bias - sources of error/bias in descriptive epidemiology?
chance - the role of randomness
selection bias
observation bias
T/F: Descriptive studies are useful for determining causality
FALSE
What do descriptive studies describe?
patterns of disease occurrence
who, what, when
