Introduction to Epidemiology & Public Health

Question 1

Define epidemiology and its objectives

Answer 1

Study of distribution and determinants of disease frequency in human populations and application of this study to control health problems

Objectives are:

• Study natural history of disease
• Determine extend of disease in a population
• Identify patterns and trends in disease occurrence
• Identify causes of disease
• Evaluate effectiveness of prevention and treatment

Question 2

Define public health and its objectives

Answer 2

Science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised efforts of society

Public health is a multidisciplinary field with the goal of promoting health in the population through ‘community’ efforts

Public health focused on prevention, activities include:

• Assessing health status
• Diagnosing health status
• Searching for the causes
• Designing solutions
• Assessing success

Question 3

What is the rate of a health outcome?

Answer 3

Quantifying health events occurring as a result of an intervention

Question 4

Define risk

Answer 4

A situation involving exposure to danger that could potentially affect the health or safety of any person as a result of environmental or corporate factors

Question 5

Define relative risk

Answer 5

Ratio of probability of an event occurring in exposed group vs probability of the event occurring in the non - exposed group

Question 6

Define attributable risk

Answer 6

• Calculated by subtracting exposed group risk from non-exposed group risk
• Measure of the proportion of disease occurrence that can be attributed to a certain exposure (e.g. lung cancer incidence due to smoking)

Question 7

Define incidence

Answer 7

Number of new cases of a disorder that develop in specified time interval per recruited (defined) study population

Question 8

Define prevalence

Answer 8

The proportion of a population that has a specific disease or characteristic at a particular point in time (point prevalence) or over a specified period (period prevalence)

Question 9

Explain the difference between incidence and prevalence

Answer 9

In epidemiology,incidence refers to the rate at which new cases of a disease occur in a population within a specific time period, while prevalence refers to the proportion of individuals in a population who have a particular disease at a specific point in time or over a period

Incidence measures the risk of getting a disease, while prevalence measures the burden of disease within a population.