Week 1 Flashcards
exposure
(risk factor or determinant)
any factor that may influence the outcome
outcome
the disease, or event, or health related state under study
define epidemiology
the study of the distribution/frequency of health related states and determinants in a population
assumptions in epidemiology
disease does not occur at random
disease has casual and preventative factors
role of epidemiology
to describe patterns of health and disease within populations
to interpret these differences
to apply results to public health practice
to evaluate effect of health-related interventions
observational epidemiology
describes patterns of health and disease without intervening to change the factors which influence them
what do descriptive studies measure
burden of illness
examples of descriptive studies
analytical study
can investigate risk factors for a disease or outcome (does not necessarily mean they are casual)
interventional epidemiology
assess effect of a specific intervention
individual level or community
case definition
method used to identify a case
boundaries of cases
unit analysis
prevalence
number of existing cases in a population at a designated time
the number of affected persons present in the population divided by the number of people in the population
prevalence calculation
no. of cases (people with disease)/
no. of people in the population
point prevalence
the proportion of persons in a defined population that has the outcome under study at a specific point in time
period prevalence
the proportion of persons in a defined population that has the outcome under study over a period of time