Measurement using epidemiological indicators

Question 1

What are the four key mathematical terms that are used to develop basic epidemiological measures :

Answer 1

• Ratio
• Proportion
• Percentage
• Rate

Question 2

What is incidence rate ?

Answer 2

• It refers to the occurrence of new disease within in a specified population in a defined period of observation

Question 3

What is prevalence ?

Answer 3

• It is the number of existing cases of a disease or health condition in a given population

Question 4

What are the different type of prevalence ?

Answer 4

• Point prevalence
• Period prevalence

Question 5

What is point prevalence ?

Answer 5

• It is all cases of a disease or health condition that exist at a particular point in time in a SPECIFIC Population
• It is the number of persons with the disease at a point in time divided by the total number in the population

Question 6

What is period prevalence ?

Answer 6

• they are all cases of a disease within a period of time

Question 7

What is the incidence rate formula ?

Answer 7

• Number of new cases occurring during a given time period / population at risk during same time period multiplied by 10n

Question 8

What is the relationship between incidence and prevalence ?

Answer 8

• Prevalence = Incidence X Duration

Question 9

What are some factors that cause prevalence to increase ?

Answer 9

• Increase in incidence
• Longer duration of the case
• In-migration of cases

Question 10

what are some factors that cause prevalence to decrease ?

Answer 10

• Decrease in incidence
• In-migration of healthy people
• Improved cure rate of disease

Question 11

What are some common measures of morbidity and mortality ?

Answer 11

• Crude rates
• Specific rates
• Adjusted rates

Question 12

What are crude rates ?

Answer 12

• its a rate that has not been modified to take into account any of the factors such as the demographic makeup of the population that may affect the observed rate

Question 13

What are examples of specific rates ?

Answer 13

• Age specific rates
• Sex specific rates

Question 14

What are adjusted rates ?

Answer 14

• Its when we use statistical procedures to remove the effect of differences in the composition of various populations or a population at different points in time, for fair comparison