G.1 Introduction to Epidemiology Flashcards
What are the 8 star roles of a pharmacist?
- Caregiver
- Decision maker
- Communicator
- Manager
- Life-long learner
- Teacher
- Leader
- Researcher
What are the 4 stages of decision making ?
- Information gathering
- Clinical reasoning
- Clinical judgement
- Decision
What is evidence based medicine (EBM)?
Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions amount the care of individual patients.
(making decisions about the care of individual patients)
What is evidence based practice ?
Evidence based practice is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.
What is post-truth ?
Relaying to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
Put the different sections in hierarchy of evidence in the correct order: from ascending order
a. case report
b. Ideals, editorials, opinion
c. In vitro research
d. cohort study
e. case control studies
f. case series
g. randomised control double blind studies
h. systematic review and meta analyses
i. Animal research
c i b a f e d g h
What is epidemiology?
The study of health and disease in population, looking at the distribution and determinants of health related states or events in specified populations and the application of this study to control of health problems
What is the goal of epidemiology?
To assist the prevention and control of disease and the promotion of health by discovering the cause of disease and the way in which these causes can be modified
What are the objectives of epidemiology?
- Descriptive epidemiology
(to determine the extent of disease found in population) - Etiological epidemiology
(To identify the cause of disease and the relative risk factors) - Clinical epidemiology
(To study the natural history and prognosis of disease) - Evaluative epidemiology
(To evaluate the effects of interventions, and to estimate risks of specific disease) - Health services epidemiology
(To evaluate both existing and newly developed prevention and therapeutic measures and modes of health care delivery)
What are the epidemiological definitions of health and illness?
Health: disease absent
Illness: Disease present
Prevalence
The number of people in the population with a disease or condition (Number of cases defined at one point in time)
Incidence
The number of people who develop a disease or condition within a specified period of time (e.g number of students who have caught a cold from the start of the year)
How is prevalence calculated ?
P= number of people with disease/ number of the whole population at risk
How is cumulative incidence calculated ?
CI= number who develop disease/ number at risk over specified time
How is incidence rate calculated?
I= number of people who develop disease/ person-time at risk (length of time during which person in population is at risk)
What is risk?
Probability of an event (e.g. the probability that an individual will develop disease)
What are examples of risk factors?
Associated with the increased chance of developing disease:
- social and economical conditions
- environmental exposures
- genetic factors
- individual lifestyle characteristics
What is the difference between risk and odds ?
risk:
probability of disease
odd:
The probability of disease to the probability of not disease
Calculated by ppl with disease/ people without disease (probabilities rather than numbers)
What is relative risk (RR) ?
The risk of developing disease in people who are exposed compared to the risk in people who are not exposed
RR= proportion who develop disease in exposed population/ proportion who develop disease in unexposed population
What is odd ratio (OR)?
The odds of having a characteristic in people with a disease to the odds of the characteristics in those without disease
OD= odds of exposure in diseased people/ odds of exposure in disease free people
e.g exposure of certain characteristic may be the protective measure
What are the requirement of individuals in a cohort study?
All subjects are disease free and time zero
What research can be conducted form the cohort study?
What will happen
What has happened
What are the strengths of a cohort study?
Can measure incidence Measurement of exposure precedes disease onset Information bias minimised Cab examine multiple outcomes Rare exposures can be studied
What are the weaknesses of a cohort study?
Time consuming and expensive
Problems with losses to follow up
Poor for rare diseases
What does case control studies involve?
Group of people with disease and group of people without disease. Start with an outcome and trace back
All exposures have already happened at the initiation of case control study
Retrospective, the outcome of each subject is know by investigators
What are the strengths of case control studies?
Relatively quick
Inexpensive
Can examine multiple cases
Good for rare disease
What are the limitations of case controlled studies ?
Information bias
Poor for rare exposure
What is a cross sectional study?
Determines exposure and event status at the same point in time
What are the strengths of cross sectional study?
Measure disease and exposure at the same point in time
used to measure prevalence
Cheap and easy to conduct
useful to asses healthcare needs of population
What are the limitations of cross sectional study?
Cannot determine causality
Cannot determine incidence
Cannot determine temporal (time) relationship
Cannot study rare outcome
