epidemiology Flashcards
epidemiology
the study of the occurrence and the distribution of health-related events in specific populations including the study of determinants influencing such processes and the application of this knowledge to control relevant health
health
is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION)
health
access to and control over the basic material and nonmaterial resources that sustain and promote life at a high level of satisfaction. (POLITICAL APPROACH)
health
a set of common-sense ideas in which we have been learning since childhood about our body processes, the way we monitor it and the standard rhetorical devices which we use to describe them. (INTERPRETIVE ASPECT-MEDICAL APPROACH)
four types of narratives used
testimony, chaos, restitution and quest narrative
restitution narrative
this is the ‘I was healthy yesterday, got sick today but will be fine tomorrow.’ The main character in this narrative is the medication method or the treatment modality. it will be very hard for the workers because they do not have enough information on what caused the sudden illness or disease, that will be gone all of a sudden tomorrow.
chaos narrative
this follows the and then…..and then….. narrative where the patient is being eaten up by the illness that they become non-coherent. It belongs to the sufferer and no-one else, the most difficult storyline and it makes the treatment look pointless.
social gradient
this states that poor health comes with the people in the low socioeconomic status, and with high deprivation, and good health comes with high socioeconomic status and low deprivation.
NZDep
this is neighborhood measure and not individual, includes some aspects and not everything.
absolute poverty
this is when you can’t even afford to get the necessities in life
relative poverty
the amount of income can afford to get the necessities of life but can’t afford some needs set by the community or the society.
low socioeconomic status
leads to poor housing causing cold, Moulds and overcrowding leading to respiratory conditions and the rheumatic heart disease.
determinants of health examples
individual factors, living and working conditions, social and community influences and the general socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions.
social determinants of health
these are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.
demographical transition
changes in population death and birth rates over time, growth and change in population over time.
epidemiological transition
change of the population disease patterns over time (communicable and non-communicable diseases)
phase 1: preindustrial
high birth and death rates, leading to a low population growth and this might be caused by diseases or lack of medication knowledge.
phase 2: transitional
declining death rates and high birth rates, and this leads to rapid increase to the population growth.
phase 3: transitional
declining of both death and birth rates, but the population growth increases rapidly.
phase 4: industrial
this has low birth and death rates, and this leads to a stable population growth
morbidity
this occurs later in life and slows the process from chronic disease to disability. creates a decrease in the period of time a person experiences severe disability.
measures of occurrence
prevalence, incidence rate and incidence proportion.
information bias
systematic difference between the way data on exposure or outcome are obtained from the various study groups. and it occurs when the participants provide inaccurate information or when the data is collected incorrectly.
null hypothesis
the parameter equals the null value, and there is no association.
alternative hypothesis
the parameter is not equal to the null value, and there is really an association
type-1 error
this is when you set up a threshold of 0.05, when the p value is less than 0.05 then it accepts the Ha (alternative hypothesis) and rejects the null hypothesis (Ho). This means that it is statistically significant
when the p value is greater than 0.05, then it fails to reject null hypothesis (Ho) and reject the alternative hypothesis (Ha) and this means that it is not statistically significant.
type-2 error
this is the incorrect fail to reject the null hypothesis. Bigger sample - more likely to get a small p value. Smaller sample - less likely to get a small p value.
bias
a systematic error in the epidemiological study that results in an incorrect estimate of the association and the risk of the disease.
it can be controlled during the data collection and the designing phase.
measurement error
the difference between the true value of a quantity and the value obtained through measurement.
this includes the accurate and precise and low systematic and random error.
then accurate and not precise but has a random error and no systematic error.
then neither accurate or precise and there is both random and systematic error.
then there is precise and not accurate and there is a systematic error and not a random error.
misclassification
difference between the study groups the information is being taken from.
differential misclassification
the results of misclassification and bias are totally different from each other,
indicator-based surveillance
this is the one that relies on the health event indicators like (mortality rates and incidence rates)
