ipl-logo

Epidemiology Chapter Summary

1504 Words7 Pages

Chapter 1. What is epidemiology?
More chapters in Epidemiology for the uninitiated

Epidemiology is the study of how often diseases occur in different groups of people and why. Epidemiological information is used to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent illness and as a guide to the management of patients in whom disease has already developed.

Like the clinical findings and pathology, the epidemiology of a disease is an integral part of its basic description. The subject has its special techniques of data collection and interpretation, and its necessary jargon for technical terms. This short book aims to provide an ABC of the epidemiological approach, its terminology, and its methods. Our only assumption will be that readers already believe …show more content…

For example, in a survey of back pain and its possible causes, the target population was all potential back pain sufferers. The study population was defined as all people aged 20-59 from eight communities, and a sample of subjects was then randomly selected for investigation from within this study population. With this design, inference from the study sample to the study population is free from systematic sampling error, but further extrapolation to the target population remains a matter of …show more content…

Clues will be missed, or false clues created, if comparisons are biased by unequal ascertainment of cases or exposure levels. Of course, if everyone is equally exposed there will not be any clues - epidemiology thrives on heterogeneity. If everyone smoked 20 cigarettes a day the link with lung cancer would have been undetectable. Lung cancer might then have been considered a "genetic disease", because its distribution depended on susceptibility to the effects of

Show More
Related
839 Words | 4 Pages

Environmental illnesses can also be caused by the lifestyle of a person which depends on what a person eats or where the person lives. Chemicals in cigarettes can cause lung cancer so if a person is an active smoker, he or she may have lung cancer caused by the chemicals. Nutritional deficiencies occur when the body does not have the required amount of nutrients so this leads to different health problems like a defected bone growth, indigestion or even skin problems. Cardiovascular diseases are normally related to the heart or the blood vessels so these may be diseases like coronary heart diseases, strokes, peripheral arterial disease and more which may cause diabetes, obesity. Mainly, it is the person’s diet and lifestyle which may prevent such diseases.

Read More
1424 Words | 6 Pages

Assignment #2 HCM 3651: Public Health Epidemiology Total Possible Points: 100 Name: Fartun Faray Instructions: Visit the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website at www.colorado.gov/cdphe and complete the activities below. 1) In the main navigation bar of the home page click "Data".

Read More
579 Words | 3 Pages

In this situation there are key ethical and legal situations that arise from the treatment and transportation of Craig. As the police are now involved the paramedics have better assistance with the legal side of restraint however the ethical issues remain import and need to be managed correctly. The first issue raised is the physical restraint of the patient, even thought the police are present the paramedics could take a different approach to avoid the use of physical restraint. It could be argued that the physical restrain is necessary in this situation as the patient could be a danger to himself or others.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

The Monty Hall Paradox is named after Monty Hall, the host of a 1960’s game show Let’s Make a Deal, who first introduced this problem as a segment on the show1. The problem was later published in the 1990’s news column Ask Marilyn vos Savant, receiving thousands of responses and attempted proofs1. The problem involves a set of 3 doors, one containing a new sports car (winner), behind the other two goats (loser). The host asks a contestant to choose one of the three doors. The host opens one of the remaining doors to reveal a goat, leaving 2 of the doors (including the chosen one) closed.

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

I will choose observational retrospective cohort design for my study. My research question was to identify the association between socioeconomic, biopsychosocial, environmental and genetic factors, and the development of childhood asthma. To establish the effect of allergen (cockroaches, dust), poverty, poor air ventilation in a house, racial factors and air pollution on developing children asthma, a cohort have to have a exposure and the cohort need to followed over time. Cohort studies are used to study the incidence, causes, natural history of a disease and prognosis.1 Because they measure events in the chronological order, they can be used to distinguish between cause and effect.1 This type of study is the best method for determining the incidence and natural history of a disease or condition.1 One of the advantages of doing retrospective cohort study is that the data already collected for some other research study or purposes. The cohort is “followed up” retrospectively.1

Read More
242 Words | 1 Pages

The usage of samples depends on how representative those samples are to the targeted population and on how big the targeted population is. As mentioned above, the examples must be representative of the targeted population. In other to come up with such examples, we need to carefully look at various aspects of the targeted population. Additionally, we need to be mindful of

Read More
598 Words | 3 Pages

They used probability sample design because they analyzed a national sample 3138 adults

Read More
193 Words | 1 Pages

For my comparison, I’ll use the analytic epidemiology model. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2010), this model investigates causes and associations between events and health, and has as a goal the discovery of the determinants of outcomes. In the movie, we can see a specific group of people, the male homosexual community, sharing common interests and characteristics. They went to the same places, such as the San Francisco bath house, had similar type of unsafe sexual behavior, they were from the same class, and later on develop similar type of clinical signs and symptoms that were characteristic of AIDS. In the movies’ case we can see a web of causality, in which many factors contributed to the negative outcomes that was seen, with many

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

Today as I was scanning the World Health Organization 's website page Disease Outbreak News, I came across a new case of a disease called yellow fever that occurred in Kenya. From what I know about yellow fever is that it is a zoonotic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. The jist of it is the fact that it originates in animals and that is can be transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Interested in the topic I decided to pursue it further and check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website about yellow fever. Interestingly enough, yellow fever can be completely prevented.

Read More
532 Words | 3 Pages

Key features While discussing theoretical sampling there are three feature that we must always consider. The three features of theoretical sampling are; • Choosing cases in terms of the theory • Choosing deviant cases • Changing the size of your sample during the course of the research  Choosing cases in terms of the theory In this feature the basis is constructed on an ideal universe or a wider universe where there is a larger comprehension or social explanations according to which you as a researcher are able to construct your theory. This theoretical universe will allow for better formulated samples which are more meaningful and sensible than others. This kind of sample will also be a wider representative sample.

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

Determinant are factor that affect the occurrence of disease in a given population and mostly those determinant varied as such nursing researcher should study those varied determinant by using different epidemiological approach in a disease investigation. Understanding the intricate factor of changes that occur during disease process can help determine how effective the disease will be control. Determinant could be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic determinant of disease can by (1) living agent such as viruses, bacteria protozoa etc (2) non living agent such as toxic substance nutrient, and water etc (3) host agent. Extrinsic determinant of disease are factors that arises as a result of human interaction to his environment which could be climate, soils and

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

The group with the most information could serve as a prior and then the estimated proportion would be adjusted with the data of the group being studied. Approaches similar to the one proposed could help create better estimations of proportions and better ways to accurately compare the estimated

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

I focused on how different factors in society, biology and the environment shape communities and individuals over time. As I dove deeper in medical anthropology, I noticed that there was a common reoccurring pattern of combining both anthropology and epidemiology to describe health problems within societal populations. I became fascinated with epidemiology because of the fact that disease can be affected by factors both on a macro and micro scale. In my field of applied anthropology, the reasons behind causal factors of disease are heavily studied to understand the population in a holistic fashion. The methodology and data collection techniques I learned as an anthropologist would give me a unique approach as an epidemiologist by helping me brainstorm ways to combat a disease by looking at a cultures ethnomedical system as well as historical and contemporary data in order to present a more clear and complete picture as to the cause of the distribution pattern.

Read More
2976 Words | 12 Pages

Event history study is used to analyze the period up until the happening of the specific event of concern. The period is measured since the stage of risk exposure of experiencing the event. For

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

I have always wanted to pursue a career related to the medical field, and it wasn't until my freshman year of college that I encountered the area of public health. I was immediately drawn to the specific area of epidemiology and infectious diseases. I am now a junior at the University of Texas majoring in Public Health with a concentration in microbiology and infectious diseases. I find epidemiology so enthralling, as it is implements ways in which we can scientifically and statistically describe diseases and the mortality/morbidity as well as predict how and why they spread. More so, I think the infectious disease aspect is interesting as well, because while the United States has shifted from burden of infectious disease to that of chronic

Read More

More about Epidemiology Chapter Summary

Related Topics

Open Document