Week 5: Epidemiology Flashcards
Epidemiology
Scientific study of patterns, causes and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations
Can be applied to the study of a human or animal disease
Cornerstone of public health
Informs health policy decisions making and interventions to reduce risk from disease and to promote health
Environmental epidemiology
Extends the tools of epidemiology to study the effects of the environment on human health
Study a wide range of health effects with potential links to environmental exposures
Descriptive epidemiology
Main purpose is to identify and describe the distribution of health and diseases
Direct information for policy and health promotion strategies
Hypothesis building
Surveillance
Analytic epidemiology
Focus is finding out the reason or cause of disease occurrence (etiology)
Focus is on associations and relationships
Epidemiological reasoning
1) Suspicion
2) Formulate hypotheses
3) Determine relationship
4) Is it causal?
Assumptions in conducting epidemiology
The occurrence of disease or death is not a random event
Most diseases or deaths have multiple determinants
Outcomes can be quantitatively and/or qualitatively categorized
There is an association between risk factor and outcome
Causality
How are we exposed to health promoting or harming factors?
Inhalation
Ingestion
Dermal absorption or penetration
Visual, aural, and psychological exposures
Endemic
Habitual presence or usual occurrence of disease in a geographic area
Epidemic
Occurence in a community or region of a group of illnesses of similar nature, clearly in excess of normal expectancy, and derived from a common or propagated source
Pandemic
Epidemic that becomes widespread that affects whole regions
Morbidity
State or rate of disease
Mortality
Rate of death
Incidence
Number of new cases of a disease that occur during a specified time period in a population at risk for developing the disease
Prevalence
Number of affected persons present in a population at a specified time divided by the number of people in the population at that time
How do epidemiologists separate causal or non-causal explanations?
Consistency Biological plausibility Temporality Strength Reversibility Analogy Experimentation
