General Principles Flashcards
The frequency and pattern of health events in a population
Distribution (think about a line graph or spot/area map)
The evaluation of the distribution by person, place and time factors
Descriptive epidemiology
The causes and other factors that influence the occurrence of health-related events
Determinants of Disease
The WHY and HOW of what causes disease is known as:
Analytical Epidemiology
**Name the 5 goals of epidemiology:
- Identify and explain the etiology or the cause of a disease/condition/disorder/death/health outcome, and the risk factors associated with it.
- Determine the extent or burden of disease in a community. This is essential for planning health services.
- Study the natural history and prognosis of a disease, which will lead the efforts for intervention.
- Evaluate both existing and new preventative and therapeutic measures, and modes of health delivery
- Provide the foundation for public health policy development and making regulatory decisions related to occupational and environmental problems.
**The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to control health problems
Epidemiology- def by John Last
Name the 3 components of the epidemiologic triad
- Host
- Agent
- Environment
A component of the epidemiological triad, this is generally a susceptible human or animal
Host
A component of the epidemiological triad, a microorganism, such as a bacteria, virus, fungi or parasite.
Agent
A component of the epidemiological triad, this includes factors such as air, water, soil, and healthcare equipment that can provide a place for microbes to hibernate or live w/o causing disease
Environment
A vehicle or form of transmission of the agent, such as a bat who carries rabies, or the contaminated hands of a healthcare worker
Vector
The first person to record his theories of disease which he attributed illness to the climate, soil, water, mode of life, and nutrition
Hippocrates
This man coined the terms ENDEMIC and EPIDEMIC DISEASE
Hippocrates
Considered to be the father of medicine
Hippocrates
This man said:
- “A good physician must familiarize himself w/a new work place or community”: environment and people.
- The importance of both PREVENTION and TREATMENT
- Observation of all contributing factors to disease
- Consider the inhabitants mode of life (drinking, eating, activity level, industriousness)
Hippocrates
He first proposed 3 modes of transmission of contagious disease:
- direct contact (person to person)
- contact w/FOMITES (contaminated articles/objects)
- Through the air
Gilolamo Fracastoro
Gilolamo Fracastoro proposed these 3 modes of transmission of contagious disease:
- Direct contact from one person to another
- Contact w/fomites (contaminated objects)
- Through the air
He believed disease was transmitted by seeds and influenced by astrology.
Gilolamo Fracastoro
He created a study to test the effectiveness of dietary supplements on scurvy patients (cider, vinegar, seawater, garlic, oranges, lemons)
James Lind (Matt LINDland’s ugly lemon head)
His study used the TRUE EPIDEMIOLOGIC APPROACH, observing the effect of person, place, time on the development and spread of disease
James Lind
He observed that milk maids developed a mild form of disease similar to smallpox, called “cowpox”. These maids seemed to be immune to smallpox during epidemics.
Edward Jenner
He performed the first vaccine clinical trial
Edward Jenner
This boy was the first to be inoculated with _____ and developed immunity to smallpox 6 weeks later
James Phipps, inoculated w/cowpox
AKA vaccination, this term is defined as the intentional inoculation of healthy people w/a disease to induce immunity
Variolation
He discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever (childbed fever; strep B infection) could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics in Vienna, Austria.
Ignaz Semmelweis
He concluded the hands of the MDs and med students were contaminated from doing autopsies and were spreading infection when they would later go to the clinic to examine women in labor.
Ignaz Semmelweis
His intervention to prevention infection involved a hand scrub w/a chlorinated lime solution
Ignaz Semmelweis
Founder of the “germ theory”
Louis Pasteur
He is the father of MODERN epidemiology
John Snow
His work involved tracing the source of the Broad Street Cholera outbreak in Soho, England by using basic outbreak investigation techniques
John Snow
He developed the theory of disease transmission through MIASMA (cloud, or poisonous gas)
William Farr (Farrt Gas)
He was the first to believe WATER could be a source of transmission
John Snow
He was the first to use geographical spacing to display epidemiological data.
John Snow (able to show water pump access points led to spread of cholera)
The first to conduct SURVEILLANCE over time and observed excess deaths unrelated to wounds from the Crimean War
Florence Nightingale
Reported that SANITATION of the filed infirmaries had a direct impact on mortality
Florence Nightingale
First to coin the term “public health nursing” and founded the Henry Street Settlement, and an early advocate for nursing in schools
Lillian Wald
She established Frontier Nursing Services in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky
Mary Breckenridge (beautiful RIDGES of Appalachian Kentucky)
The _____ of an infectious agent is the habitat in which the agent normally lives, grows, and multiplies. This can include humans, animals, and the environment.
Reservoir
