Epidemiology part 2 Flashcards
What are descriptive studies?
Describes the who, where, and when.
“Hep A outbreak at child center on easter sunday” .
The who or person.
When or time.
Where or place.
What are analytical studies?
BASIC Types of analytical studies?
Tests a hypothesis about relationships between health problems and possible risk factors.
Retrospective - go backwards to find the development of the problem. When did the seniors develop high bp?
Prospective - tracking something as it is happening to see where it went wrong . When will the freshman get high bp?
OTHER analytical studies?
Case Control: retrospective, match healthy and unhealthy group together.
Cohort study: prospective, match a group that has something in common
Examples of Cohort studies?
Farmington study - Followed those with heart disease from their 20’s till death.
Nurses study - due to nurses being reliable but they were able to find out a lot about women’s health. Fruits and veggie nurses lived longer. And that hormone replacement causes cancer.
Example of Case Control study?
Match english major with nursing major. When did they develop high blood pressure?
What is relative risk?
What if the relative risk (rr) rate is less than 1?
A probability statement essentially.
Incident rate among those exposed
_____________________
Incident rate among those not exposed
If it is less than 1, it indicates a protective factor which means you are protecting yourself * you want the 1or below
Experimental studies definition
What is needed?
Study carried out under controlled conditions
- syphillis study
These are pretty rare in epidemiology.
Control group, treatment group, placebo
Causation
Smoking causes cancer. Is that association strong enough to be a causation?
What is a good example of causation?
Means something actually causes something.
No it isn’t because not all people who get cancer smoke. And not all smokers get cancer.
- this is more of a correlation
Good : measles causes measles.
Causation rules of association
Strong Consistent Temporally correct Specific Not from a confounding variable Plausible and consistent w current knowledge
What is screening?
Way to identify those who are ill (if they don’t know) so that they can get treated faster
What are some examples of things we screen for?
BP
Cancer
Stds
Covid-19
Should we screen for something that has no cure?
A good example of a disease that we wouldn’t screen for?
Usually we should only screen if the early diagnosis and treatment can save a person.
Huntingtons Disease. If someone has an incurable disease like this, they will be told to put their affairs in order.
(- This sound a little strange but they’re not going to waste time on screening people for a disease that can’t be treated bc they are using the money and resources to help discover the treatment)
Will they screen someone for a rare disease or any other disease if they don’t have facility to treat them?
No they won’t because there’s no point.
Will they screen children for stds? Why or why not?
This goes with the screening guideline that says we should only screen for certain things if the population we are screening is appropriate for it.
Are children being exposed to stds often? No. So we will not screen them.
Same concept in testicular cancer. We don’t screen women for that because that is not the target group.
- Know the concept: only screen if it is appropriate to the population
Will we screen for a disease if the test doing so isn’t consistent?
No we won’t . Test must be reliable.
Define : Test reliability
Tests being consistent
Define: Test validity
Test’s ability to measure what is supposed to be measured
Define: Test sensitivity
What does it help avoid?
Test being able to correctly identify those who have the disease.
Sensitivity helps to avoid false positives
Define: Test specificity
What does this help avoid?
Test able to identify those who DO NOT have the disease
Specificity helps to avoid false negatives
Cons of home screening tests?
What should you do after a positive home screening test?
They don’t have to report or follow up - so you can lose reported numbers.
- not a good thing during covid-19 pandemic
Say you get a positive Hep B test. You should call your doctor so get a for sure diagnosis.
How are nurses Reporters?
We do a lot of counting to mitigate illness
How are nurses investigators?
Need to investigate how to solve outbreaks
So nurses are Reports & Investigators.
What other 3 roles are they?
Reporters and Investigators but also …
Consultant
Responders
Planners
If something seems unusual, should you go ahead and report it?
Yes report it
What is a passive system?
A designated person will report to health department and then it gets passed on to state and then passed on … until at CDC
If disease reporting, can you look at people’s records?
Yes. HIPPA actually doesn’t apply here if you need to look at someone’s record. However , after that you are still bound to HIPPA as in you can’t go and post on facebook about it.
How to be an Epi partner?
Be curious
Don’t rely on the form - go deeper. Try to make the connections.
Don’t dismiss evidence
