epidemiology exam 2 5-8 Flashcards
(130 cards)
what is secular trend
changes in frequency over time
what is a population pyramid and how is it changing the U.S over time. What implications does this have on public health.
has been used for many years by demographers and epidemiologists to track and compare changes in population age distribution over time.
how is it changing the U.S over time = affected by birth rates and fertility levels ,wars and death rates and migration
implications does this have on public health - approximately 20 percent of the U.S population in 2030 will be age 65 or older
the need for health aging related services will grow
characteristics to describe a population
nativity and migration
religion
socioeconomic status
age
sex
marital status
race and ethnicity
reasons for age associations
diagnoses across the life span
multimodality of trends
latency effects
action of the human biologic clock
life cycle and behavioral phenomena
diagnoses across lifespan
Some infections (e.g., mumps and chickenpox) occur more commonly during childhood.
The leading cause of death among young adults is unintentional injuries.
Maternal age is associated with rates of diabetes and related complications.
The incidence of and mortality from chronic diseases increase with age.
Age-specific incidence rates among elderly often inaccurate. Multiple sources of morbidity may afflict a single elderly individual.
multimodality
Age-specific distributions can be linear (e.g., cancer), or multimodal (e.g., tuberculosis).
latency effects
Age effects on mortality may reflect the long latency period between environmental exposures and subsequent development of disease.
biologic clock phenomenon
Waning of the immune system may result in increased susceptibility to disease, or aging may trigger appearance of conditions believed to have genetic basis.
sex differences: female Paradox 1970
female age-standardized morbidity rates for many acute and chronic conditions were higher than rates for males, even though mortality was higher among males.
coronary heart disease
leading cause of death in mortality among women
Less alert; Less seek treatment (often seen as stress)
Gender bias from medical professionals when seeking treatment, underdiagnosing and undertreating
place examples
address where health related states or events are occurring the most or frequently
involves comparisons between or among geographic regions in groups before or after mirgration
reasons of place variation in disease
Gene/environment interaction
Examples: sickle-cell gene
Influence of climate
Examples: Yaws, Hansen’s disease
Environmental factors
Example: chemical agents linked to cancer
what is time
aspects of the epidemiologic investigations range from hours to weeks from years to decade
characteristics of time
cyclic fluctuations (seasonal trends )
point epidemics ( short term)
secular time trends ( trend over the years )
clustering - temporal or spatial
point epidemics
response of a group of people circumscribed in place and time to a common source of infection, contamination, or other etiologic factor to which they were exposed almost simultaneously.
Examples:
foodborne illness
responses to toxic substances –Love Canal
infectious diseases
love canal
became a symbol of the dangers of toxic waste in residential neighborhoods the legal and medical issues that are still playing out
They dumped the chemicals in the canal in Nigeria falls, people who lived close started to smell the different chemicals and children started to obtain skin rashes.
some people were able to relocate into different homes but others had to stay and had trouble relocated
case clustering
refers to an unusual aggregation of health events grouped together in space and time.
temporal clustering
post-vaccination reactions, postpartum depression.
spatial clustering
concentration of disease in a specific geographic area, e.g., Hodgkin’s disease.
secular time trends
is the general systematic linear or nonlinear component that changes over time and it represents the long term changes in health related states or events
aging population, which tends to have different spending and savings habits than a younger population
cyclic fluctuations
periodic fluctuations on an annual or other basis. epidemic disease outbreaks – short-term fluctuations. Time trends contribute to our understanding of the natural history of epidemics of acute infectious diseases such as measles or waterborne disease, as well as NCDs such as stroke or cancer.
examples of disease specific health status indicators
global or life expectancies
fertility rate
death rates
examples of non disease indicators
health disparities and demographic and social variables
global burden - disability adjusted life year
combines information on mortality with information on morbidity for specific causes.