Intro to Epidemiology Flashcards
What are the targets of public health? And explain them.
policy, community, organizational, interpersonal, and individual
What are the three targets of public health?
Assessment, policy development, and assurance
Explain assessment as a core function of public health.
to regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze, and make available information on the health of the community, including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiologic and other studies of health problems
Explain policy development as a core function of public health.
to serve the public interest in the development of comprehensive public health policies by promoting the use of the scientific knowledge base in decision-making about public health and by leading in developing public health policy
Explain assurance as a core function of public health.
to assure their constituents that services necessary to achieve agreed-upon goals are provided, either by encouraging actions by other entities (private or public), by requiring such action through regulation, or by providing services directly
What is primary prevention?
strategies, tactics, and procedures that prevent the occurrence of disease in the first place
EX: safe drinking water, vaccinations
What is secondary prevention?
strategies, tactics, and procedures, including screening tests, that detect disease as early as possible among seemingly healthy individuals so that disease progress can be arrested
EX: pap smear for cervical cancer, mammography
What is tertiary prevention?
strategies, tactics, and procedures, including interventions, that aim to arrest the progress of established disease
EX: chemotherapy for colorectal cancer, stroke rehabilitation program
What is epidemiology?
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
What are the five important elements of epidemiology?
1) study
2) distribution
3) determinants
4) health-related states or events
5) populations
Explain “study” as an element of epidemiology.
surveillance, observation, hypothesis testing, analytic research, experiments
Explain “distribution” as an element of epidemiology.
characteristics of persons affected, place, time
Explain “determinants” as an element of epidemiology.
physical factors, biological factors, social factors, cultural factors, behavior factors that influence health
Explain “health-related states or events” as an element of epidemiology.
diseases, behaviors (e.g. tobacco use), reactions to preventative regimens, provision and use of health services
Explain “populations” as an element of epidemiology.
groups of individuals, groups of groups, often defined by person, place, time
How is epidemiology a tool?
patterns of disease result from specific causes, and through orderly sequence of reasoning, those disease patterns can be elucidated, then once elucidated, this information can be used to prevent disease and promote health.
How is epidemiology a liberal art?
Because epi is useful for taking a first look at a new problem, it is applicable to a broad range of interesting phenomena, using: the scientific method, analogic thinking, deductive reasoning, problem solving within constraints
What are the objectives of epidemiology?
1) intervene to reduce morbidity and mortality from a disease
2) determine the extent of disease found in a community
3) study the natural history and prognosis of disease
4) evaluate both existing and newly developed preventive and therapeutic measures and modes of health care delivery
5) provide the foundation for developing public policy regarding disease prevention and health promotion
Explain a population-based prevention approach.
A preventative measure is widely applied to an entire population
EX: dietary advice to prevent coronary disease through mass media and other health education approaches
Why is epidemiology important to clinical practice?
Practicing medicine is dependent on population data, and population-based concepts and data underlie the critical processes of clinical practice, including diagnosis, prognostication, and selection of therapy. Basically, a physician applies a population-based probability model to the patient on the examining table
Who was Ignáz Semmelweis?
Who was Edward Jenner?
Who was James Lind?
