Introduction to epidemiology Flashcards
define public health
public health is the science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed choices of public and private communities and individuals
describe how public can be broad - what does it include?
broad - e.g. injuries to env.
what is public health approach?
- surveillance - what is the problem?
- risk factor ID - what is the cause?
- Intervention evaluation - what works?
- Implementation - How do you do it?
health prof. use and apply scientific methods from which core sciences?
- prevention effectiveness - linked to P.H. policy.
- epi
- laboratory
- data management - public health informatics.
- surveillance
define epidemiology
study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states among specified populations and the application of that study to the control of health problems
what is the purpose of epi in PH?
- discover the agent, host and env factors that affect health
- determine the relative importance of causes of illness, disability and death
- ID pop at risk
- evaluate the effectiveness of health programmes and services in improving population health
what is epi triangle?
- WHO
- WHAT
- WHERE
Try and break a link!
what is the difference between epi and clinical medicine?
epi:
- finding causes of disease and preventing disease.
- population level study of healthy and unhealthy people and disease pattern.
- interested in source of diseases.
- mode of transport.
- epi goes to community (not patient to dr).
- evaluate outcome of preventative and therapeutic measures.
clinical medicine - individual diagnosis and treatment of disease in person.
what lies at the heart of epi?
WHY US? - jump from individual to the group.
what is an outbreak?
when more people get sick with a disease than scientists and doctors expect.
increase in no of cases expected from normal - TIME and PLACE / change in pattern of disease
why do we need to investigate outbreaks?
- establish control methods
- stop the outbreak
- understand what happened and why (why control measures not working)
- prevent future outbreaks
- improve surveillance and outbreak detection.
what are steps of outbreak investigation?
- establish the existence of a real outbreak
- confirm the diagnosis
- define a case
- . search for a case
- generate H using descriptive findings
- test H using analytical epi
- draw conclusions
- conduction additional investigations
- communicate findings
- execute control and prevention measures.
what did zika virus cause in kids?
congenital malformations / birth defects.
what is epidemiological curve?
have incidents by week over all regions of world.. have cases and deaths.
how has epidemiology been used during covid response?
in best treatment response for drugs and vaccines
