Week 1 Introduction to Epidemiology

Question 1

What is epidemiology (as described by Last 1988)

Answer 1

The study of the DISTRIBUTION and DETERMINANTS of HEALTH-RELATED STATES OR EVENTS in specified POPULATIONS and the application of this study to the CONTROL of health problems

Question 2

What are the 6 components of the epidemiological approach?

Answer 2

What (case definition)
Who (person)
Where (place)
When (time)
Why (cause and determinants)
So what (drawing inferences: prevention and controll)

Question 3

What is a case definition?

Answer 3

A set of standard criteria for deciding whether or not a person has a disease or health related event.
There can be a definition for suspected and confirmed events.

Question 4

What are we interested in when describing WHO is affected by disease?

Answer 4

Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Occupation
Socioeconomic status

Question 5

What are we interested in when describing WHERE a disease occured?

Answer 5

Place of residence
Place of birth
Place of work
District/region/state/country

Question 6

What are we interested in WHEN describing when a disease occurred?

Answer 6

Seasonal variations
Daily variations
Long term trends
Time of the day

Question 7

What are we interested in when describing WHY a disease occurred?

Answer 7

Interested and causes and determinants
Generating hypothesis regarding cause of disease
Testing hypothesis
Making comparisons

Question 8

What are were interested in regarding “So what”

Answer 8

Drawing inferences
Prevention and control

Question 9

What is meant by descriptive epidemiology? What does it look at?

Answer 9

Describes disease by person, place and time
Measures the burden of disease

Question 10

What is meant by analytical epidemiology? What does it look at?

Answer 10

Looks at associations between ‘exposure’ and disease
i.e to establish causation
- observational studies
- intervention ( to evaluate new interventions and monitor intervention programs)

Question 11

Consider this question, “what is the relationship between myocardial infarction and death from coronary artery disease and the following risk factors: smoking, cholesterol, and blood pressure”.
To answer this do you need a descriptive or analytical study?

Answer 11

Analytical

Question 12

Consider this question: “What proportion of the global population is at high risk of severe COVID-19?”
Does this need a descriptive or analytical study to answer the question?

Answer 12

Descriptive

Question 13

Consider the following question: “ does fluoridation prevent dental carries?”
Does this need a descriptive or analytical study?

Answer 13

Analytical, but specifically an interventional analytical study