Measures of Disease

Question 1

(4) Measures of Disease

Answer 1

• Absolute Numbers
• Rate
• Ratios
• Proportions

Question 2

Absolute Numbers

Answer 2

• Count of events
• ¨Can be misleading
• ¨Hard to compare different groups like cities, counties or states

Question 3

Ratios

Answer 3

• ¨One event number divided by another
• ¨Can be misleading
• ¨Still dealing with absolute numbers
• ¨Comparisons are challenging

Question 4

Proportions

Answer 4

• ¨A ratio where the numerator is included in the denominator
• ¨Useful to epidemiologists
• ¨Comparisons can be made
• ¨Tells us the fraction of the population affected

Question 5

Rates

Answer 5

• Cases of disease / total population * constant= cases per specific time period
• It refers to the speed of developing disease
• ¨Critical to Epidemiology
• ¨Used in Descriptive and Analytic Epidemiology