Epidemiology Flashcards
What is epidemiology ?
The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, neighbourhoods, school, city, county, state, country, globe and the application of this study to control of health problems.
Factors that influence disease epidemiology
Disease type
Mode of transmission
Genetic composition
Environment
Behaviour
Pathogenic virulence
Vaccination status
Disease type
Communicable - infectious (widespread)
Non-communicable - (localised)
Mortality rate
Mortality rate is an estimate of the portion of a population that dies during a specified time period.
Statistics needed for mortality rate
A denominator population
A time frame
Case fatality rate
The proportion of cases of a specified condition that are fatal within a specified time.
Weaknesses of CFR estimation
May underestimate (esp in early days) of outbreak / if there are breakdowns in reporting system
May overestimate if the denominator is limited
It assumes all cases have been tested
Infection fatality rate
The proportion of cases of a specified condition that die divided by the total infected people.
- depends on detection and reporting of asymptomatic or mild cases
Infection rate
The rate at which the infection spreads within a population
Ro < 1 : spread is less likely
Ro > 1 : spread is more likely
Larger the Ro : the harder it is to control the spread of disease
Denominators
Health board
City
Hospital
Disease register
Recruited to a study
Mortality rate
No people died / population x 100
Person time
The time period (e.g. number of years) that a person is exposed to risk.
N year follow up
The time period for which a cohort of people have been followed up for a given condition.
Incidence
Number of new cases
Number of new people with outcome over a time / total number of people in the group at risk
Multiplied by the population
Prevalence
Proportion of population that has disease at a given time.
Point : at a specified time
Period : over a specified period
