Epidemiology Flashcards
What is the role of epidemiology
measurement of amount and distribution of disease and natural history of disease
study of causes/determinants of diseases
assess people’s risk of disease
health care needs assessment and service planning
development of preventive programmes
evaluation of interventions
What are the 3 things epidemiology is
descriptive
analytical
intervention
What is prevalence
the number of disease cases in a population at a given time
How do you calculate prevalence
number of affected individuals (cases)/total number of persons in population
What are prevalence estimates obtained from
cross sectional studies or derived from registers
What is incidence
number of new disease cases developing over a specific period of time in a defined population
How is incidence rate calculated
no.of new cases of a dis. in a period/no of individuals in the pop. at risk
What is incidence estimates obtained from
longitudinal studies or derived from registers
How is distribution looked at
when where when
OR
time place person
What are dental indices
DMFT
What are dental caries programs
SHBDEP and NDIP
What are epidemiological indices
to measure disease an appropriate index is needed
measuring for the purposes of epidemiological studies is different from recording disease for px treatment purposes
What are properties of an ideal index
clear, unambiguous, objective not subjective
ideally correspond with clinically important stages of the disease
indicate tx need
within the ability of examiners
reproducible
not time consuming
acceptable to patient
amendable to statistical analysis
allow comparison with other studies
What are limitations of DMF
teeth are extracted for reasons other than caries
influenced by access (inter proximal surface)
difficulty in differentiating fissure sealant from restorations may underestimate caries
influenced by past disease activity
cannot be used fo root caries
What is NDIP
national dental inspection program
