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L7: Descriptive Epidemiology

Terms in this set (6)

Descriptive Epidemiology
- Study of the distribution and determinants of disease frequency in human populations
- Analysis of disease patterns according to: person, place, time
Person
- Age, gender, race, ethnicity, SES, occupation, religion, marital status
Place
- Can be defined in terms of geopolitical units (e.g. countries, states), or natural geographic features (e.g. mountains, rivers)
- Place encompasses physical, biological, and social environments
- Scale can range from global to specific neighborhood blocks
Time
- Scale of time depends on the disease (decades to hours)
- Look for temporal changes, time trends in disease
- Trends may result from naturally accompanying changes in exposure to causal factors and/or susceptibility to the disease
Disease clusters
- An unusually high incidence of a particular disease or disorder occurring in close proximity in terms of time and/or geography
- temporal, spatial, spatio-temporal
Purpose
- Assess the health status of a population
- Generate hypothesis about causal factors for the disease
- Plan and evaluate public health programs
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