Lesson 3: Uses and Core Functions of Epidemiology

Question 1

What are the 4 main uses of epidemiology?

Answer 1

1. Assessing the community’s health
2. Making Individual Symptoms
3. Completing the clinical picture
4. Searching for causes

Question 2

What does Assessing the Community’s Health entail?

Answer 2

using descriptive epidemiology to learn about the disease(determining the person, place and time)

Question 3

What does making individual decisions entail?

Answer 3

Making decisions based on health data in relation to personal health, so eating a salad over a burger, using a condom, or not smoking

Question 4

What does completing the clinical picture entail?

Answer 4

It entails combining the diagnosing abilities of doctors and the data analyisis abilities of epidemiologists

Question 5

What does searching for causes entail?

Answer 5

It uses epidemiology and laboratory science to provide the evidence needed to establish causation

Question 6

What are the 6 major tasks of epidemiology

Answer 6

1. Public Health Surveillance
2. Field Investigation
3. Analytic Studies
4. Evaluation
5. Policy Development

Question 7

Which major task of epidemiology was added more recently

Answer 7

policy development

Question 8

What can public health surveillance sometimes be called

Answer 8

information for action

Question 9

What is public health surveillance

Answer 9

It is the ongiong systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health data to help guide public health decision making and action

Question 10

What is the purpose of public health surveillance?

Answer 10

To portray the ongoing patterns of disease occurrence and disease potential so that investigation, control and prevention measure can be applied efficiently and effectively

Question 11

What is Public Health Surveillance?

Answer 11

It is the ongoing, systematic collection analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health data to help guide public health decision making and action

Question 12

What are the objectives of field investigations?

Answer 12

• Additional unreported or unrecognized ill persons (ec: identifying sexual partners for STIs)
• A source or vehicle of infection that can be controlled or eliminated

Question 13

What is shoe leather epidemiology?

Answer 13

to learn more about the natural history, clinical spectrum, descriptive epidemiology, and risk factors of the disease before determining what disease interviews methods might be apropriate

Question 14

What are the steps of an Analytic Study?

Answer 14

1. Design
2. Conduct
3. Analysis
4. Interpretation
5. Communication of Findings

Question 15

What is Evaluation in the 6 major tasks of epidemiology?

Answer 15

the process of determining, as systematically and objectively as possible, the relevance, effeveness, efficiency and impact of activities with respect to established goals

Question 16

What is effectiveness in evaluation?

Answer 16

the ability of a program to produce the intended results in the field

Question 17

How to effectiveness and efficacy differ?

Answer 17

efficacy is the ability to produce results under ideal conditions whereas effectiveness is the ability to produce intended results

Question 18

What is efficiency in evaulation?

Answer 18

the ability of the program to produce the intended results with a minimum expenditure of time and resources

Question 19

What is Linkage in evaluation?

Answer 19

Connecting or linking epidemiology to other health and public disciplines or