Preventive Medicine: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Preventive Medicine

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and definitions from the lecture notes.

Epidemiology

The study of what befalls a population.

Definition of Epidemiology

The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems.

Interpretation of Epidemiology

Scientific, systematic, data-driven study of the distribution (frequency, pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events in specified populations.

Uses of Epidemiology

Assessment of the community’s health, making individual decisions, completing the clinical picture, and identifying causes of disease.

Public Health Surveillance

Ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data to help guide public health decision making and action.

Field Investigation

The coordinated efforts of several people to characterize the extent of an epidemic and to identify its cause.

Descriptive Approach (Analytic Studies)

Study of disease incidence and distribution by time, place, and person; includes calculation of rates and identification of parts of the population at higher risk than others.

Evaluation

The process of determining the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of activities with respect to established goals.

Policy Development (Epidemiology)

Provides input, testimony, and recommendations regarding disease control strategies, reportable disease regulations, and health-care policy.

Types of Epidemiology

Major epidemiologic techniques: Descriptive, Analytic, and Experimental.

The 5 W's of Descriptive Epidemiology

Health issue of concern, person, place, time, causes/risk factors/modes of transmission.

Analytic Epidemiology

Analyzes disease determinants for possible causal relations using case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies.

Case-Control Method

Starts with the effect (disease) and retrospectively investigates the cause.

Cohort Method

Prospectively studies two populations: one with contact to a suspected causal factor and one without.

Cross-Sectional Study

A study in which a population is surveyed over a limited period to determine the relationship between a disease and variables present at the same time.

Experimental Epidemiology

Involves developing a hypothesis and constructing an experimental model where selected factors are manipulated.

Epidemiologic Triad or Triangle

External agent, susceptible host, and environment that brings the host and agent together.

Reservoir

Person, animal, arthropod, plant, soil, or substance in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies.

Portals of Exit

The means by which a pathogen exits from a reservoir (e.g., blood, respiratory secretions).

Endemic

Refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.