Week 8 - population health, epidemiology & communicable diseases Flashcards
what are vital statistics?
Birth rates (births per year per 1000 people in the totally population) Death rates (Deaths per year per 1000 people in the total population) Age adjusted rates make different population with different age structures comparable
what is demography
The study of size and composition of human populations
measuring the burden of diseases is…
Foundation for evidence-based policy and practice
Global disease burden
- Causes of death (mortality)
- Causes of disease morbidity
- Disability
- Risk factor rates
Incidence
# of total new cases in a specific time period / total # at risk (describes outbreaks, acute disease) - often decrease if a new vaccine or other preventative measure is available
Prevalnce
# of total existing cases (new & old) / total # of people in population (describes chronic disease in population) Can decrease if there is a new therapy cures a lot of the disease
Challenges of measuring mortality
In many lower-income parts of the world vital statistics are not collected (no death registry)
It can be difficult to assign a single cause of death (either b/c the cause is unknown or because there were many contributing causes)
Life expectancy at birth
Median expected age at death of all babies born alive (which usually includes some child & young adult deaths and many deaths of older adults)
Healthy life expectancy
the number of years the average person born into a population can expect olive without disability
1850-1900
Age of hygiene
1950-1970
Golden age of abs
What are the 3 aspects of an epidemiological triangle
1) Agent
2) Host
3) Environment
what does the epidemiological triangle tell us
how disease moves in a population & how to prevent it
posits that the possibility of the disease occurrence is determined by the interactions ebtweent the host, the agent and the environment
What is the host vs. the AGENT in epidemiological triangle
HOST: susceptible person
AGENT: etiological factors
Agents have been classified as:
1) Nutritive elements
2) chemical agents
3) Physical agents
4) Infectious agents
Factors affecting host susceptibility
1) genetics
2) age
3) gender
4) Ethnic group
5) Physiologic state
6) prior immunologic state
7) pre-existing disease
8) human behaviours
what are environmental factors
Extrinsic to both the host & the agent, however, can either a moderating or mediating relationship with the agent & the host
CAN BE USED TO INFECTIOUS & NON-INFECTIOUS diseases like CAD
Epidemiological triangle for covid
Host: human or animal
agent: infectious agent
environmental: social distances/ masking / or not
CAD epidemiological triangle
Agent: genetic susceptibility (intrinsic) / composition
host: person
Environment: external factors such as diet, exercise, environment can influence someones individual genetic susceptibility to develop or express a trait
Health transitions
~100 years ago, populations around the world had similar health profiles (high birth rates, high death rates, short life expectancies, many diseases and death d/t infectious & undernutrition)
As economies improved & health profile shifted to lower birth rate, lower death rate, higher burden of chronic diseases (d/t over nutrition)
what is a demographic transition
Shift toward lower birth and death rates a populations move from being low-income economies to high-income economies.
population pyramid is a tool used to visualize demographic transition
population will eventually stop growing when the country transitions to high birth & high death rates to
LOW BIRTH & LOW DEATH RATES –> stabilizing the population –> occurs in industrialized countries sb/c less developed follow the advanced countries.
Right now most countries have ____ growth rates
POSITIVE - keeps getting bigger
what is growth rate
Measuring how much the population grows or shrinks over some time period
Calculated - Add both & immigration, subtract death & emigration.
Growth rate = current - individual divided by initial & multiplied by 1000