Epidemiology

Question 1

define epidemiology

Answer 1

the study of occurrence of disease in a population

Question 2

what are the 2 goals for infectious disease epidemiology?

Answer 2

• ID causative agent and its relationship between the host and environment
• interrupt disease transmission to prevent control or spread

Question 3

define baseline or endemic level of the disease

Answer 3

amount of particular disease that is usually present in a community

Question 4

define sporadic

Answer 4

disease that is infrequent and irregular

Question 5

define endemic

Answer 5

constant presence and/or usual prevalence of an infectious agent in a population w/in a geographic area

Question 6

define hyperendemic

Answer 6

persistent high levels of disease occurrence

Question 7

Define Epidemic

Answer 7

increase (often sudden) number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population

Question 8

define cluster

Answer 8

aggregation of cases grouped in place/time that are suspected to be greater than the number expected

Question 9

Pandemic

Answer 9

an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large population of people

Question 10

describe the aims of Epidemiologic Research

Answer 10

1. Describe the health status of a population (Descriptive epidemiology)
2. assess the public health importance of disease (Descriptive epidemiology)
3. describe the natural history of disease (Descriptive epidemiology)
4. explain etiology of disease (Analytic Epidimiology)
5. predict the disease occurrence (Analytic Epidimiology)
6. eval. the prevention and control of disease (Analytic Epidimiology)
7. control the disease distribution (Applied Epidimiology)

Question 11

explain what descriptive epidemiology deals with.

Answer 11

• Person: age, gender, behavior, immunity
• place: where is the disease clusters? work, country, climate
• time: when is the disease occurring? seasonal, long-term disease patterns