Chapter 5: Descriptive Epidemiology - Person, Place, and Time

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms and concepts of descriptive epidemiology, including study types, variables of person, place, and time, and social determinants of health.

Descriptive Epidemiology

The classification of the occurrence of disease according to the variables of person (who is affected), place (where they were affected), and time (when and over what time period).

Case Reports

Accounts of a single occurrence of a noteworthy health-related incident or of a small collection of such events, such as a single case of a $7$-year-old boy infected with human rabies.

Case Series

A larger collection of cases of disease than a case report, often grouped consecutively and listing common features of affected patients, such as the reported cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) in children.

Cross-Sectional Study

A type of investigation that examines the relationship between diseases and other variables of interest as they exist in a defined population at one particular time, effectively measuring prevalence.

Epidemiologic Inference

The process of drawing conclusions about the nature of exposures and health outcomes and formulating hypotheses to be tested in analytic research.

Age

Perhaps the most important factor in descriptive epidemiology; age-specific disease rates usually show greater variation than rates defined by almost any other personal attribute.

Nativity

A person variable referring to the place of origin of the individual or their relatives, subdivided into foreign-born and native-born.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

A composite measure of a person’s position in society, often formulated from income level, education level, and type of occupation.

Health Disparities

Differences in the occurrence of diseases and adverse health conditions as well as access to health care in a population.

Social Determinants of Health

Conditions in the environment where people are born, live, learn, work, play, and worship that impact a wide variety of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes.

Five Domains of Social Determinants of Health

Economic Stability, Healthcare Access and Quality, Social and Community Context, Education Access and Quality, and Neighborhood and Built Environment.

Secular Trends

Gradual changes in the frequency of disease over long time periods, such as the increase in drug overdose death rates in the U.S. between $2000$ and $2020$.

Cyclic (Seasonal) Trends

Increases and decreases in the frequency of a disease or phenomenon over a period of several years or within a year, such as enteroviruses peaking between July and September.

Point Epidemics

The response of a group from a common place to a common source of infection, contamination, or other etiologic factor to which they were exposed almost simultaneously.

Clustering

A closely grouped series of events or cases of a disease or other health-related phenomena with well-defined distribution patterns in relation to time, place, or both.

Spatial Clustering

The aggregation of health-related events in a specific geographic region.

Temporal Clustering

The occurrence of health-related events related specifically to time, such as anaphylaxis occurring within $15$ minutes of a vaccine receipt.