Exam 1 Overview of epidemiology

What are the six dimensions of health?

• Physical

• intellectual

• Occupational

• Spiritual

• Social

• Emotional

what is public health?

the science of protecting an improving the health of people and their communities. This work is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and defecting, preventing, and responding to infectious diseases

What is the mission of public health?

overall, it is concerned with protecting entire populations. These populations can be as small as a local neighborhood, or as big as an entire country or region in the world

Know the difference between public health and medicine

public health protects the health of populations through prevention, while medicine treats individuals through diagnosis and care.

Population

refers to a collection of individuals who share one or more observable personal or observational characteristics from which data may be collected and evaluated

• social

• economic

• family (marriage and divorce)

• work and labor force

• geographic factors

Primary prevention

prevent the disease from occurring

• i.e. immunizations

Secondary prevention

early detection and treatment to prevent severe consequences of disease

• screening

tertiary prevention

prevent/reduce impairment and disability

• i.e. rehabilitation

Epidemiology

the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in human populations

fundamental assumptions of epidemiology

• disease does not occur at random

• there are causal and preventative factors which can be identified by systemic investigation of different populations or subgroups within a population

Six characteristics of epidemiology

• population focus

• distribution

• determinants

• outcomes

• quantification

• control of health problems

epidemic

the occurrence in a population of an illness clearly in excess of normal expectancy

endemic

the usual or constant presence of a disease in a geographic area or population

pandemic

an epidemic which affects a large proportion of the population, usually involving several continents

what are the major uses of epidemiology?

• historical

• community health

• health services

historical use of epidemiology

documents the patterns, types, and causes of morbidity and mortality over time

• decline in infectious disease mortality

  • i.e. decline in rates of influenza and pneumonia mortality

community health use of epidemiology

“to diagnose the health of the community and the condition of the people, to measure the true dimensions and distributions of ill-health in terms of incidence, prevalence, disability, and mortality”

Health services use of epidemiology

• “to study the working of ______ ________ with a view to their improvement…”

  • sample application: operational (operations) research

• Epidemiology helps to provide quantitative information regarding the availability and cost of healthcare services

• epidemiologic studies aid planners in determining what services are needed in the community and what services are duplicated unnecessarily

operational research

defined as a type of study of the placement of health services in a community and the optimum utilization of such services

risk assessment

• a methodology used to provide quantitative measurements of risk to health

• to estimate from the group experience what are the individual risk son average of disease, accident and defect, and the chances of avoiding them

risk

the probability that an event will occur

risk factor

an exposure that is associated with disease. morbidity, mortality, or adverse health outcomes

disease causality

“to search for causes of health and disease by computing the experience of groups defined by their composition, inheritance, and experience, their behavior and environments”

• one of the most important uses of epidemiology

what are the top 3 leading causes of death in the US

• heart disease

• cancer

• unintentional injury