1. Objectives of epidemiology.2-7
Step 1. Understanding the etiology or cause of a disease (risk factors)
, Step 2. Finding out the extent that a disease or health problem affects a community or
population.
Step 3. Determine the natural history or prognosis
Step 4. Evaluate existing and newly developed preventative therapeutic measures and
modes of healthcare delivery
Step 5. Provide the foundation for developing public policy relating to environmental
problems, genetic issues, and other considerations regarding disease prevention and
health promotion.
2. Define, compare, calculate, and interpret Measures of Morbidity .41.58
a. Incidence rate.41.51
(# of NEW cases of a disease occurring in the population during a specified
period of time / # of persons who are at risk of developing the disease during
that period of time) x 1000 = Incidence rate per 1,000
: the NEW cases of a disease over a period of time.
b. Attack rate.46
- special form of cumulative incidence
- Used for diseases of short observation time period
- Not a true rate because the time dimension is often uncertain (food borne
outbreaks)
= (# of new cases among population during period / population at risk at
beginning of period) x 100 (expressed as %)
c. Prevalence.46
: the EXISTING cases of a disease over a period of time.
(# of cases of a disease present in the population at a specified time / # of
persons in the population at that specified time) x 1,000 = Prevalence per
1,000
3. Understand why incidence data are important for measuring risk.
Measures risk (probability of developing disease)
Useful for investigating determinants of disease (not survival)
To investigate causes of disease
Need to know population ‘at risk’ or ‘person-time’ at risk
4. Define, compare, calculate, and interpret Measures of Mortality
a. Cause-specific mortality rate.64.65
=(Total number of deaths due to x cause / total population at mid year) x
1,000
=(No.of deaths from leukemia in one year in children younger than 10 years
of age / No.of children in the population younger than 10 years of age at
midyear) x 1,000
b. Annual mortality rate .64
-annual death rate, or mortality rate from all causes.
(total # of deaths from all causes in 1 year / total population at mid year ) x
1,000
c. Case-fatality.65
--what percentage of people who have a certain disease die within a certain
time after their disease was diagnosed?
=(# of deaths due to a certain disease/total # suffering from that disease) x
100 %
-Measure of the severity of the disease
-As therapy improves, case-fatality would be expected to decline.
d. Proportionate mortality. This is Not a rate. 66
-the proportionate mortality from cardiovascular disease in the U.S. in 2010
(percent, %)
-of all deaths in the US, what proportion was caused by cardiovascular
disease?
=( # of deaths from cardiovascular diseases in US in 2010 / total deaths in the
US in 2010) x 100
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