More Descriptive Epidemiology (ch.4) Flashcards
Can we find cause for diseases in descriptive epidemiology?
No! It simply describes; we can measure prevalence and incidence of disease
Does human disease occur at random?
NO! We can find patterns of disease by studying it.
What are the three main components of descriptive epidemiology?
1) Who got it?
2) When did they get it?
3) Where did they get it?
Besides age, what are two other variables used in epidemiological research?
1) Race
2) Ethnicity
**Though, race is difficult to define, so it’s best to use ethnicity.
Why is using ethnicity beneficial?
It’s complex and may involve shared origins and cultures.
- *It may help to increase of understanding of a disease’s process.
- *May help to identify subgroups.
Where do diseases take PLACE?
We use this to try and find some geographic pattern.
For most diseases, there is a pattern.
Name three time trends used in descriptive epidemiology.
1) Short-term fluctuations
2) Cyclic patterns
3) Secular trends
Give an example of short term fluctuations in disease frequency.
*food borne outbreak
What are cyclic patterns?
These are “regular” patterns. For instance, annual increases in flu during colder months.
What are secular trends?
Long term changes over decades or more.
**chronic and infectious disease
Example: heart disease
What are some characteristics of cyclical time trends?
1) Periodic fluctuations on a seasonal or annual basis; valuable in investigation of acute diseases or those with short latent period
What are some characteristics of secular time trends?
Helps us to identify what’s changed over time:
1) diagnostic techniques
2) case findings
3) accuracy in enumerating the population at risk
4) age distribution in the population
Define epidemic.
“the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health related behavior or other health related events clearly in EXCESS OF NORMAL EXPECTANCY”
**the above-normal rate of disease
Define disease clusters.
Clusters are based on place and are usually chronic diseases.
“aggregation of relatively uncommon events or diseases in space and/or time in amount that are believed or perceived to greater than could be expected by chance”
