Epidemiology

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epidemiology

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the study of the dist. and determinants of disease and health-related events in populations, and the application of this study to contolling and preventing health problems

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endemic disease

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the constant or expected presense of a disease in a given area

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epidemic disease

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excess of expected disease occurance in a given area

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prevalence

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# of individuals with disease at a specific time/ total # individuals in a pop
(a percent%)

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incidence

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new cases over a period of time in a population at risk
# individuals who get the disease over a period of time/# at risk individuals (who don't have the disease)

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incident cases

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new cases

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prevalent cases

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existing cases

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population at risk

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total population excluding prevalent cases
(denominator in incidence)

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culmultive incidence

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# individuals who get disease over a time period/ # at-risk individuals at the beginning

(a proportion- NOT a rate)

(between 0 and 1 (ex death=1))

(can rise but can never go down)

(always tied to a specific time interval)

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incidence rate

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the measure of occurrence of disease per unit time

(always has time in the denominator)

(individuals contribute different amounts of time at risk)

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crude mortality rate

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A proportion of how much of a population dies during a specific time

(# deaths during that time/avg. pop size during that time)

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age-specific death rate

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crude mortality rate restricted to a specific age group (also a %)

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Case-fatality rate

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How likely you are to die of the disease if you get it
(# deaths from disease that year/#cases disease that year)
a PROPORTION

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Morbidity

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occurrence of disease

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Mortality

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chances of dying of the disease

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cause

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An event, condition, or a characteristic that preceded the disease event and w/o which the disease would have not occurred (or at least until much later)

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multifactorial etiology

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a disease can me a result of many factors- part of an epidemiological triangle between hot, agent, environment

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confounder

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a factor linked to the studied factor that is, in fact, the real cause of the disease

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sufficient cause

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a set of minimal conditions that inevitably produce disease

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component cause

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a condition or event, that combined with other conditions or events, contributes to the sufficient cause and results in disease occurence

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necessary cause

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necessary to get the disease but not sufficient in itself to cause it (ex. Cholera)

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Counterfactual model of causation

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Ideally- we'd be able to observe the effects of treatment and control in the same individual at the same time

Try to make the control group comparable to your exposed group had they not been exposed (observational studies)
In experimental studies you randomize to get this effect