Lesson 4 Flashcards
What is epi? What is the purpose of epi? How is epi used in public health practice?
Epi is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and injuries in human populations; the study of factors that influence health and disease in populations
Purpose: monitor health status, identify determinants of health & disease, investigate & evaluate interventions
How is it used in PHP: Surveillance, disease investigation, community health assessment, screening, targeting intervention programs, evaluation of intervention programs
What are 2 types of epi?
Descriptive and Analytical
What is descriptive epidemiology?
Descriptive epidemiology: when, where, who
When was the population affected, Where was the population affected?, Who was affected?
What is analytical epidemiology?
Analytical epidemiology: How and why
How was the population affected? Why was the population affected?
What is the difference between incidence and prevalence?
Prevalence is the number of EXISTING CASES(numerator) divided by the total number of persons in the population (denominator) multiplied by a given multiplier
Incidence: the number of NEW CASES diagnosed in a given period of time divided by the total number at risk in the population over that same time period and multiplied by a given multiplier
What does an attack rate tell you?
Attack rate: a disease or condition is endemic when there is a moderate, ongoing occurrence in a given location; a proportion of the people of an agent who developed the disease
The number of people exposed to a specific agent who develops the disease is divided by the total number of people exposed
What are the parts of the epi triangle?
Host: susceptible human or animal; the living being that an agent or the environment influences; do they have genetic susceptibility (age, sex, genetics, ethnicity),
Agent: biology (viruses, bacteria), chemical(drugs, toxins), physical (noise, temperature) that causes the disease
Environment: the setting or surrounding that sustains the host; physical (geography, water/food supply), social (poverty, access to health care)
What does the development of disease depend on?
the host’s exposure to the agent
The virulence of the agent
The host’s immune susceptibility to the agent
The environmental conditions existing at the time
What is the web of causality? How does it influence prevention?
The complexity of how illnesses, injuries, and diseases are determined by multiple causes and are at the same time affected by a complex interaction of biological and socio-behavioral determinants of health; A 2 dimensional causal web that considers multiple levels of factors that affect health and disease
Prevention: helps health care providers develop more comprehensive strategies to reduce disease and injury-related morbidity mortality through primary and secondary prevention
What is morbidity?
Morbidity: the number or proportion of individuals experiencing a similar disability, illness, or disease (people who are sick Ill and injured); Ex, the number of infants within a county with pertussis
what is mortality?
Mortality: the. Number of deaths within a given population during a specific time period such as one year (death rate)
What is passive surveillance?
Passive surveillance: when data is collected based on individuals or institutions that report on health information either voluntarily or by mandate;
Ex: daycare workers are often required to report in increase in the number of cases of CDs to the local or state health departments
What is active surveillance?
Active surveillance: going out looking for cases of something (used in an outbreak where there is a sudden change in the number of cases particular to the disease); involves the deployment of public health professionals to identify cases of a disease or health condition under surveillance;
Ex: the ebola response in Liberia where multiple organizations were involved in finding the cases, tracking the spread of disease, and preventing further transmission
What are types of data, demographics; Sources of data for epi.
Sources of demographic data: census, community-level data, national surveys
Types of data: life expectancy, biostatistics, census Data, community data, mode, median & mode, percentage change, rates
cohort studies (follow a specific population, subset of the population, or group of people over a specific time period)
cross-sectional studies (studies or surveys examine risk factors and disease using data collected at the same point in time)
case-control and odds ratio studies (compare the ratio of disease of those exposed and not exposed to risk factor)
