Quiz 1 Flashcards
What is epidemiology?
the study of distribution and determinants of health and diseases, injuries, morbidity, and mortality
what is morbidity?
an illness
What is mortality?
deaths that occur in a group
Who is john snow?
a physician who mapped out cholera outbreaks and hypothesized how the disease was spread
Who is alexander fleming?
biologist best known for his discovery of penicillin which started the antibiotic revolution
Who is edward jenner?
discovered the small pox vaccine
Who was the first professor of epidemiology?
wade hampton
What are vital stats?
deaths, births, marriages, divorces, and fetal deaths
Why are vital stats important?
they let us know the health of a population
How do you define a reportable disease?
A disease that physicians are mandated to report due to risk of spreading and rates rising
What is an example of a reportable disease?
STIs, plague, cholera
why does the US lag in life expectancy?
we put all our money into medical care vs. prevention. prevention would reduce medical care costs and increase life expectancy
How do we measure life expectancy?
age-specific death rates among members of the relevant population
What is a surveillance system?
a systematic collection of data pertaining to the occurrence of certain diseases
What are some challenges that may effect the quality of epidemiological data?
what are the sources? what is the nature of the data? how complete is the population coverage? how available are the data? what are the appropriate or inappropriate uses of the data?
