Epidemiology Flashcards
What is exercise?
A subset of physical activity that is planned, structured and repetitive bodily movement, done to improve or maintain one more more components of fitness, performance or health
What is physical activity?
Bodily movement that is produced by the contraction of skeletal muscle and that substantially increases energy expenditure
What is most ill health in Australia attributed to?
Non-communicable diseases (chronic)
What is prevalence?
Quantifies the proportion of the population who have a particular health problem (eg diabetes) at a specified time
What is incidence?
Quantifies the number of new occurrences that develop during a specified time (person-time incidence rate)
How to calculate prevalence?
Number of people with disease/illness etc at a particular point in time / number of people in the sample
How to calculate incidence?
Number of new cases of disease/risk factor in a specified period / number who were initially disease-free
Must involve a period of time!
Two main types of research design
Observational studies and experimental studies
What are the observational studies?
Case reports/series
Cross-sectional
Case-control
Cohort
What are the experimental studies?
Single group intervention
Quasi-experimental intervention
Randomised controlled intervention
What is primary prevention?
Preventing the disease before any symptoms appear (i.e. in a largely healthy population)
What is secondary prevention?
Preventing a biological risk factor (usually detected from screening) from worsening, once it is evident. Requires action to delay progression and reduce severity
What is tertiary prevention?
Managing an established problem to prevent it from getting worse
Where does almost all primary prevention evidence on physical activity come from?
Cohort studies
Who is the father of epidemiology who studied bus drivers?
Jeremy Morris
Who continued Jeremy Morris’ work in his studies of heavy work?
Ralph Paffenbarger
What are cross-sectional studies designed to do?
Used to assess at one point in time:
Prevalence of a health problem or behaviour and the associations between ‘exposure’ and ‘risk’
What does it mean by “Cohort studies are prospective”
They measure physical (in)activity and then compare risks of developing health problems with people in different “levels of exposure” to that risk factor
Characteristics of cohort studies
Select an identified cohort
Should be representative of the population
Follow over time for many years
Collect data on both exposures and outcomes
Expensive
Needs right questions at beginning
What seperates epidemiologists from other researchers?
They count and compare data from the population, not the laboratory.
What is a risk ratio?
Relative risk - compare risk in two or more groups
What is an odds ratio?
Comparison of odds in two or more groups
What is a prevalence ratio?
Comparison of prevalence in two or more groups
What does RR > 1.00 mean?
Higher risk
What does RR < 1.00 mean?
Protective
What does RR = 1.00 mean?
Neither risk nor protective
Calculation for risk ratio?
Occurrence [risk, prevalence, odds] in EXPOSED GROUP / Occurrence [risk, prevalence, odds] in UNEXPOSED GROUP
John Stewarts criteria for causation?
Temporal sequence
Strength of the association
Is the association consistent across studies?
Is there a dose-response relationship?
Is the association biologically plausible?
What is a meta-analysis?
A statistical procedure for combing data from multiple studies (usually of the same design).
Based on systematic review of all publications
What does the Australian guideline say for PA?
Doing some activity is better than doing none. If you currently do no PA< start by doing some and gradually building up to the recommended amount
And
Be active on most, preferably all, days of the week
How much time does the Australian guideline recommend for adults 18-65?
Accumulate 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity PA, or 75-150 mins of vigorous activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous activities each week
How many days a week should adults do muscle strengthening?
Two days