midterm 2 equations/calculations Flashcards
(43 cards)
prevalence
cases / total population
cumulative incidence
new cases in a specific period of time / # of people at risk at the beginning of the period
incidence rate
of new cases during a given time / # of person time (years,months,days) contributed when people were at risk
incidence rate can also be known as..
force of morbidity or mortality, incidence density
point prevalance
the proportion of people in a population with the disease at a given point in time (ex July 8 2004)
period prevalence
the proportion of individuals in a population with the disease at any time during a specified period (ex during 2004)
use of prevalence
how many people are affected?
estimate probability an individual will have the disease during a point in time
project health care and other policy needs and issues
estimate costs associated with a particular disease
prevalence cannot tell us..
how long someone has had the disease
cause of disease
cumulative incidence should exclude… because..
people who already have the disease, people who cannot develop the disease
to avoid underestimating risk
uses of cumulative incidence..
estimate probability (avg risk) that a person will develop the disease during a specific time period
research on causes, prevention, and treatment of a disease
incidence rates shows us..
true rates - incidence rate can go up or down
denominator represents the window of time people were at risk at developing the disease, not the number of people at risk at the beginning
reported in unit of time (.. per 100 person days, … per 100 person years)
use of incidence rates
research on causes, prevention, and treatment of disease
crude mortality rates
of new deaths / average population during the year
infant mortality rates
of deaths in children up to 1 year in a specific year / # of live births in the same year
standardized incidence or mortality ratios
of deaths / # of expected standard population
proportional mortality rate
proportion of deaths from a specific cause / proportion expected for standard population
case fatality rate
of dead from disease in specific period / total number of cases
how to establish causation
temporality - exposure must come first
strength of association - strong effect?
biological plausibility - what is the likely biological mechanism?
consistency - found across a range of studies?
dose response - level and duration of exposure
sufficient cause
factor that will inevitably produce disease
component cause
factor that contributes toward disease causation but not sufficient enough to cause disease on its own
necessary cause
any agent that is required for the development of a given disease
what is considered an exposure?
infectious agents
behaviours
intrinsic characteristics of individuals
social or environmental factors
observational studies
the researcher does not intervene in any ways: measurement of occurrence of disease or health outcome, comparing patterns of expose and disease outcomes, identifying risk factors associated with heath/disease
experimental studies
investigator tries to change something and measure the effect on the disease outcome - clinical trials, preventive trials