Epi- upon
Demos- people
Logos- study of
study of what befalls a population
epidemiology
study
distribution
Determinants
Frequency
occurrence of health-related events by:
- time
- place
- person
Pattern
may be annual, seasonal, weekly, daily, hourly, weekday versus weekend, or any other breakdown of time that may influence disease or injury occurrence.
Time patterns
include geographic variation, urban/rural differences, and location of work sites or schools.
Place patterns
include demographic factors which may be related to risk of illness, injury, or disability such as age, sex, marital status, and socioeconomic status, as well as behaviors and environmental exposures.
Personal characteristics
Epidemiology was originally focused exclusively on epidemics of communicable diseases but was subsequently expanded to address endemic communicable diseases and non-communicable infectious diseases
Health-related states or events
Specified population
Application
a phase of epidemiology approach that concerns with the disease distribution and frequency
descriptive epidemiology
a phase in epidemiology approach that’s concerned with analyze the causes of disease through hypothesis testing
analytical epidemiology
phase epi approach that answers questions about the effectiveness of new methods for controlling diseases or for improving underlying conditions
intervention / experimental
phase in epi approach that measure the effectiveness of different health services and programmes
evaluation epidemiology
presumptive identification of unrecognized diseases or defects through the application of diagnostic tests or laboratory examinations and clinical assessment.
screening
done to look for previously unidentified cases of diseases.
case finding
proportion of persons with a disease who test positive on a screening test. measures the probability of correctly identifying a positive case of a disease.
sensitivity
proportion of persons without a disease who have negative results on a screening test. It measures the probability of correctly identifying non-cases.
Specificity
used to calculate an identifiable population exposed to an infectious agent. It represents the incidence of the illness among the exposed population. They are frequently used in surveillance and control of communicable diseases.
attack rate
basis for determining the community’s reaction against disease invasion since it represents the immunity and susceptibility levels of individuals comprising the population
herd immunity
situation when there is a marked upward fluctuation in disease incidence
epidemic