Introduction

Question 1

Epidemiology

Answer 1

Study of disease in populations, with intention to institute control

Question 2

What are the 4 aims of epidemiology?

Answer 2

• describe health status of populations
• explain etiology of disease by determining factors that cause disease and discover transmission modes
• predict number of disease occurrences, and distribution of health
• control disease and prolong productive life

Question 3

How do you describe the health status of a population?

Answer 3

• enumeration of occurrence of disease
• obtaining relative frequency in subgroups
• discovering important trends

Question 4

How do you control disease?

Answer 4

• prevention
• early identification
• reduction of existing cases
• assessment of intervention

Question 5

What are the 3 risk factors in clinical disease? (epidemiological triad)

Answer 5

• agent (bacterial, viral)
• host (immune/defense status)
• environment (housing, weather, nutrition)

Question 6

Observational study

Answer 6

Principle type of epidemiologic study

• observe and measure exposure, and observe/record outcome
• does NOT involve: administering fixed treatment, don’t control the exposure factor, are not randomizing the animals

Question 7

What are the 3 main types of observational studies?

Answer 7

• cohort
• case-control
• prevalence

Question 8

Cohort study

Answer 8

Aka: prospective study
- group of individuals exposed to a putative risk factor and a group who are unexposed to the risk factor are followed over time (often years) to determine the occurrence of disease