Epidemiology Flashcards
Research
scientific method by which data is collected to describe, explain, and/or predict events
Evidence-based practie
conscientious and judicious use of current best evidence to guide HC decisions
epidemiology
study of distribution, freq, determinants of health and disease in human pops to understand causation
- guides health practices
Who of epid
Population
What of epid
determinants of health
- what makes susceptible
Where of epid
distribution of disease
When of epid
Frequency of disease
Why of epid
Disease causation; comes from asking other W questions
How of epid
Application of Ws
- to prevent and control probs
Subdivisions of epid
infx, genetics, mol, injury, occup, chronic disease, enviro, bx, social
How are Healthy 2030 objectives measured?
With epid
Focus of epid
ID fx and char that cause, predict, or are assoc with dev of a health condx
surveillance method of data collection
ongoing, sys collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related date
Descriptive epid
describes the Ws
- ex: COVID cases
Analytic epid
Examine relx btwn Ws to determine Why
agent
fx that cause disease incl chemical, infx, physical
- consider ability of agent to cause illness
- infectivity, pathogenocity, virulence, toxigenicity
Host
living specifies that can be infected/affected by host
- host may/may not dev disease–consider exposure, sus, response, genetics, age, sec, immune exp, bx, preexist cond
extrinsic environment
all ext to agent/host and is infl existence of the agent, exp or sus to agent
- consider bio, phys, human pop, SES, flora
Epid triangle
- disease occurs when agent is present in sus host under enviro conditions favourable to disease dec
- chx in one component can infx where a disease occurs
What does the epid triangle NOT work well for
chronic or mental ill bc focus is too narrow
Web of causation
- chronic disease model
- many fx involve r/t Ws
- focus on links to break the connect by identifying them
Web of causation
Factors that influence the web of causation
- CAD, air poll, unsafe, lack access, poverty
Routinely collected data source
- Vital stats
- US census
- Ntl center for health stats
Epid data
Collected for specific epid sources
- Sci studies
- pop screen
- surveillance
Other data for epid purposes
EHR, HCP, insurance records, hospitals
Rate
Freq which event occurs in defined pop in specific time
- likelihood of events occurring, measures occurrence of events
Formula for rate
occurrences in 1 period/total pop in some period * K
See notes for other formulas
See notes for other formulas
Risks and odds
Chance of occurrences
Risk
ppl who experience an event/all ppl at risk for an event
- in percentage or proportion
Odds
ppl who experience an event/#ppl who don’t experience an event
- in proportion or number 1 to infinity
- higher number, greater likelihood
Years of potential life lost
Age adjusted measure or premature mortality (in US, before age 75)
- how many ppl died early who could have lived and contributed econ to society
What is YPL an indicator of?
Economic hardship
Reliability
- extent to which a procedure yields consistent results on repeated admission
- same every time
Validity
- degree a procedure accurately captures something
- measures what you want it to measure
Sensitivity
- ability to correctly ID those with disease
- true positive if you do have the disease
If not sensitive enough, you get…
false negatives
Specificity
Ability of a test to correctly determine those w/o a disease
- true neg if you don’t have a disease
If a test is not specific enough, you get a…
False pos
incidence
number of new cases
Prevalence
Number of current cases
Mortality
actual death
Morbidity
Disease rates
3 fx to consider for host
exposure
susceptibility
response
