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What are the four methods of Epidemiology?
What are the four methods of epidemiology?
- Cohort study. A cohort study is similar in concept to the experimental study.
- Case-control study.
- Cross-sectional study.
What are the types of epidemiological studies?
- Case-Control Studies
- Cohort Studies
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Epidemiologic Research Design*
- Follow-Up Studies
- Humans
What are epidemiologic methods?
Epidemiology is the study of disease in populations. Epidemiological methods are used for disease surveillance to identify which hazards are the most important. Epidemiological studies are also used to identify risk factors which may represent critical control points in the food production system.
Is epidemiology a type of research study?
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states and in specified populations and the application to control health problems. Classified as either descriptive or analytical, a variety of epidemiologic approaches can be used to allow assessment of hypothesized risk factor exposure with disease outcomes.
What are the two main types of epidemiologic methods?
Epidemiologic studies fall into two categories: experimental and observational.
What are the three most common methods of epidemiologic study?
Three major types of epidemiologic studies are cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies (study designs are discussed in more detail in IOM, 2000). A cohort, or longitudinal, study follows a defined group over time.
What are the 4 types of epidemiological data?
The tests of analytical epidemiology are carried out through four major types of research study designs: cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, cohort studies, and controlled clinical trials.
Why are epidemiological methods important?
Epidemiological methods are used for disease surveillance to identify which hazards are the most important. Epidemiological studies are also used to identify risk factors which may represent critical control points in the food production system.
What is epidemiological explain?
Epidemiology is defined as “the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events (including disease),” and the goal of epidemiologists is to apply findings to control diseases or health issues.
What are the 3 types of epidemiology?
The three major epidemiologic techniques are descriptive, analytic, and experimental. Although all three can be used in investigating the occurrence of disease, the method used most is descriptive epidemiology.
What are the 5 main objectives of epidemiology?
In the mid-1980s, five major tasks of epidemiology in public health practice were identified: public health surveillance, field investigation, analytic studies, evaluation, and linkages.
What are examples of epidemiology?
Some examples of topics examined through epidemiology include as high blood pressure, mental illness and obesity. Therefore, this epidemiology is based upon how the pattern of the disease causes change in the function of human beings.
What are the benefits of epidemiological studies?
Epidemiologic studies provide the most direct and relevant evidence for an association between a suspected risk factor and disease. Each of the study approaches considered in this chapter might produce useful new information regarding the association between living near a nuclear facility and potential cancer risks.
What is the relationship between epidemiology and research?
Epidemiology underpins good clinical research. It is any research with a defined numerator, which describes, quantifies, and postulates causal mechanisms for health phenomena. Epidemiology gives insight into the natural history and causes of disease and can provide evidence to help prevent occurrence of disease.
What are the 3 divisions of epidemiology?
The Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications (DECA) has three main functions: research, education, and consultation. Research is the dominant function.
What are the 3 main elements of descriptive epidemiology?
Descriptive epidemiology searches for patterns by examining characteristics of person, place, & time . These characteristics are carefully considered when a disease outbreak occurs, because they provide important clues regarding the source of the outbreak.
What are the types of epidemiological study design?
The basic epidemiological study designs are cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies.
What are the four uses of epidemiology?
Section 4: Core Epidemiologic Functions. In the mid-1980s, five major tasks of epidemiology in public health practice were identified: public health surveillance, field investigation, analytic studies, evaluation, and linkages.
Why is epidemiology important?
Epidemiological research helps us to understand how many people have a disease or disorder, if those numbers are changing, and how the disorder affects our society and our economy. The epidemiology of human communication is a rewarding and challenging field.
What factors should be taken into account when calculating the cost of illness?
Ideally, the cost of illness would also take into account factors that are more difficult to measure, such as work-related costs, educational costs, the cost of support services required by the medical condition, and the amount individuals would pay to avoid health risks.
What is the burden of disease?
Burden of disease: The total significance of disease for society, beyond the immediate cost of treatment. It is measured in years of life lost to ill health, or the difference between total life expectancy and disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALY). (Adapted from the World Health Organization. (link is external)
What is epidemiology analysis?
The epidemiological method relies on population-wide statistics about the prevalence and incidence of injuries. These analyses are often specific to certain characteristics such as type and cause (e.g., burns, drowning, firearm wounds, or motor vehicle occupant), demographic variables (e.g., age, sex, socioeconomic class of the injured victim), and injury circumstances (e.g., where the injury occurred: street, house, school; how it occurred: fall, car collision, fire). These epidemiological analyses can convey some aspects of injury development in order to suggest where attention is needed to prevent or control injuries (Baker et al. 1992, Robertson 1998). Epidemiology studies have established that motor vehicles contribute to the most injuries of any cause, indicating that speed, road conditions, passenger seatbelt use, driver's alcohol consumption, for example, are related to these injuries and deaths. Different types of injuries vary in predominance at various ages. For children, a developmental relationship of behavior, ability, and environment has been noted: toddlers are injured in falls and ingestion of poisons; school children are hit by cars as pedestrians; adolescents are injured in car collisions as drivers or passengers, in sports activities, and by firearms. The elderly are injured in falls.
Why is it important to select the appropriate epidemiologic method and study design?
Selecting the appropriate epidemiologic method and study design is an essential part of conducting effective studies when responding to a disaster. This allows epidemiologists to quickly provide valid and reliable results that can be actionable for planners and decision-makers responsible for preparedness, response, and recovery. These methods and study designs include:
Why is epidemiology important?
Epidemiological methods are crucial to extract as much valid information as possible from human metal exposures. Thus, modern epidemiological approaches have elucidated human health effects that were not apparent in the past. At the same time, metal toxicology has served as a useful arena for testing and further refining methods for study design and data analysis. In contrast to most organic compounds, metals are not broken down, and many of them are retained in the body for long periods, thereby facilitating exposure assessment. In conjunction with the use of inexpensive metal analytical methods, exposures can be characterized from the analysis of blood, urine, and other biological samples. The availability of multiple approaches for exposure assessment allows a calculation of the total imprecision, thus paving the way for adjustment for measurement error. Likewise, due to their propensity to cause chronic or delayed toxicity, epidemiological studies of metal toxicity have focused on a wide variety of organ systems, subtle effects as well as mortality, and differences in susceptibility. Toxic metals often serve as paradigms of environmental and occupational toxicity. For these reasons, this chapter highlights the fields within epidemiology that are most relevant to toxic metals and discusses where these substances serve to illustrate important epidemiological concepts. Chapter sections include subjects such as epidemiological terms, study design, study population, exposure assessment, assessment of effects, data analysis, and assessment of benchmark dose, and inference.
How does epidemiology contribute to disaster recovery?
Disaster epidemiology methods can contribute in many ways to the resilience of communities and individuals to the public health and other impacts of disasters. Rapid and ongoing access to high-quality data is essential for the immediate implementation of response and recovery plans and the ongoing task of reducing vulnerability to future disasters. In the short term, making decisions based on deficient or inconsistent data will likely lead to inefficient or inadequate distribution of financial or human resources related to disaster response and crisis management, insufficient availability of trained responders and resources, and a larger burden of both physical and mental health outcomes. In the longer term, the lack of disaster epidemiology data could have impacts on the placement and maintenance of critical infrastructure, such as community health centers or shelters, and the development and implementation of programs to reduce vulnerability. Collecting epidemiologic data to characterize the physical and social vulnerability of communities and individuals will help to strengthen the evidence base for the public health impacts of future disasters.
What are the drawbacks of epidemiological methods?
Every epidemiological method has its drawbacks. Most vulnerability analyses fail to take into account all the factors that contribute to the structure of the human environment, particularly the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the population at risk. Rapid needs assessments continue to suffer from a lack of common indicators that can be linked in standard formats and commonly shared among response agencies. Mortality rates may be inappropriately underestimated or overestimated if population estimates are not accurate or if mortality events are clustered in time and place. Respondents may readily introduce selection biases in nonrandomized quantitative or qualitative surveys. Depending on perceived incentives or disincentives, respondents may exaggerate the needs of the community (if the interviewer has access to outside resources) or minimize the needs of the community (if the interviewer is seen as an outsider and garners mistrust). Since all epidemiological methods have benefits and pitfalls, it is imperative that they are used correctly, with thoughtful consideration to the population’s needs, the space and time context, and the potential biases that may be introduced.
Why do epidemiologic methods fail?
Vulnerability analyses fail when they don't take into account all the factors that contribute to the structure of the human environment, particularly the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the population at risk. Rapid needs assessments continue to suffer from lack of common shared indicators between donor agencies, NGOs, and international organizations. Mortality rates may be inappropriately inflated or deflated if the population estimates are not accurate. Respondents may easily introduce biases in participatory appraisals, for example, exaggerating the needs of the community knowing that the interviewer will likely have access to outside resources or, because of mistrust or pride, will minimize the needs. Bias is also inherent in nonprobability sample surveys; critical errors can result when such samples are generalized to a population. Since the humanitarian response depends on each of these methods, it is critical that they are used correctly and appropriately.
What are the impacts of lack of epidemiology?
In the longer term, the lack of disaster epidemiology data could have impacts on the placement and maintenance of critical infrastructure, such as community health centers or shelters, and the development and implementation of programs to reduce vulnerability.
What is epidemiology in health?
Many definitions have been proposed, but the following definition captures the underlying principles and public health spirit of epidemiology: Epidemiology is 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 ( 1 ).
What were the epidemiologic methods developed in the 20th century?
By the middle of the 20th Century, additional epidemiologic methods had been developed and applied to chronic diseases, injuries, birth defects, maternal-child health, occupational health, and environmental health.
How do epidemiologists and health care providers differ?
Although epidemiologists and direct health-care providers (clinicians) are both concerned with occurrence and control of disease, they differ greatly in how they view “the patient.” The clinician is concerned about the health of an individual; the epidemiologist is concerned about the collective health of the people in a community or population. In other words, the clinician’s “patient” is the individual; the epidemiologist’s “patient” is the community. Therefore, the clinician and the epidemiologist have different responsibilities when faced with a person with illness. For example, when a patient with diarrheal disease presents, both are interested in establishing the correct diagnosis. However, while the clinician usually focuses on treating and caring for the individual, the epidemiologist focuses on identifying the exposure or source that caused the illness; the number of other persons who may have been similarly exposed; the potential for further spread in the community; and interventions to prevent additional cases or recurrences.
What are the behaviors that epidemiologists look for?
Then epidemiologists began to look at behaviors related to health and well-being, such as amount of exercise and seat belt use. Now, with the recent explosion in molecular methods, epidemiologists can make important strides in examining genetic markers of disease risk.
What is epidemiology distribution?
Distribution. Epidemiology is concerned with the frequency and pattern of health events in a population: Frequency refers not only to the number of health events such as the number of cases of meningitis or diabetes in a population, but also to the relationship of that number to the size of the population.
What is the definition of determinants in epidemiology?
Determinant: any factor, whether event, characteristic, or other definable entity, that brings about a change in a health condition or other defined characteristic. Epidemiology is also used to search for determinants, which are the causes and other factors that influence the occurrence of disease and other health-related events.
What are the 5 W's of epidemiology?
The difference is that epidemiologists tend to use synonyms for the 5 W’s: diagnosis or health event (what), person (who), place (where), time (when), and causes, risk factors, and modes of transmission (why/how). The word epidemiology comes from the Greek words epi, meaning on or upon, demos, meaning people, and logos, meaning the study of.
What is epidemiology study?
Types of Epidemiological Studies. The study of disease distributions in the populations and the factors that influence this distribution is called as Epidemiology. In simple words, it is the study of the frequency with which diseases affect different groups of people and the reasons why they occur. Epidemiology has been quite helpful in determining ...
What are the two main types of epidemiological studies?
There are two main types of epidemiological studies: experimental studies and observational studies and both of them are divided into several subtypes. 1. Observational Studies. Observational studies are one of the most common types of epidemiological studies. They comprise of simple questioning, medical examinations and routine laboratory tests ...
What is an experimental study?
Experimental studies are also main types of epidemiological studies that scientists will carry out experiments where they change things in some sets and compare the outcomes. Under in Vitro studies, a piece of human or animal cell is usually removed from the body for the experiment.
Why are field trials so expensive?
Since field trials are done in the field, they are more expensive than clinical trials and require a large number of subjects too. Due to the high cost, field trials are only conducted for assessing preventives for extremely dangerous or extremely common diseases.
Why are case control studies important?
Case control studies are analytical studies which compare people that have been diagnosed with a disease with people that haven't been diagnosed with it.
What is clinical trial?
Clinical trials are experimental studies in which a group of patients is chosen as the subjects. The goal of a clinical trial is to assess a new form of treatment or cure for a disease or to discover a preventive measure for diseases like disability or death. Clinical trials are done by choosing a set of patients having a same level ...
How are clinical trials done?
Clinical trials are done by choosing a set of patients having a same level of baseline characteristics. Half of the subjects are given the new treatment while the other half is either given a placebo or the best accepted treatment for their particular condition.
