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Descriptive Epidemiology

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Evaluation of trends in health and disease ... the author describes some interesting or intriguing observations that occurred ... Websites. ASPH.org ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Descriptive Epidemiology


1
Descriptive Epidemiology
  • Summer ,2001
  • Susan R. Tortolero

2
Descriptive EpidemiologyPerson, Place and Time
  • Concerned with characterizing the amount and
    distribution of disease within a population
  • Three broad objectives that characterize the
    utility of descriptive epidemiology
  • Evaluation of trends in health and disease
  • Provide basis for planning, provision, and
    evaluation of health services
  • Identify problems to be studied by analytic
    methods and to suggest areas for fruitful
    investigation

3
Types of studies that are considered descriptive
  • Case reports/series
  • The simplest design
  • the author describes some interesting or
    intriguing observations that occurred in a small
    number of patients.
  • included in case series have usually been drawn
    from a single patient population, whose makeup
    may have influenced the observations noted
    because of selection bias.
  • frequently lead to a generation of hypotheses
    that are subsequently investigated in a
    cross-sectional, case-control, or prospective
    study.
  • Do not involve comparison groups
  • Cross-sectional studies
  • Surveys of the population to estimates disease
    prevalence or exposures
  • Correlational or Ecological studies

4
Characteristics of persons
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Marital status
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Religion
  • Socioeconomic status

5
Some reasons for age associations (Macmahon and
Pugh)
  • Age-specific incidence may be inaccurate among
    older age groups because of difficulty assigning
    exact cause of death
  • Biological clock explanation (greater
    susceptibility to disease as immune function
    decreases)
  • Related to life cycle and behavioral phenomena
  • long latency to environmental exposures and
    development of disease late in life

6
Descriptive Epidemiology
  • Geographic variations
  • International
  • National
  • Local

7
Reasons for place variations in disease
  • Clustering of person variables (i.e., racial
    ethnic, or religious groups)
  • Genetic characteristics of the population may
    interact with environment
  • Influence of climate (i.e, temperature, humidity)
    or environmental factors.
  • Access to risk factors

8
Evaluation of trends in health and disease
  • Comparisons among countries and subgroups within
    countries
  • Monitoring of known diseases
  • Identification of emerging problems

9
Characteristics of time temporal and spatial
clustering point epidemics
10
Characteristics of time secular trends Figure
1. Secular trend in overweight prevalence for
youths 6 to 17 years of age
11
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12
Websites
  • ASPH.org
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