CHAPTER 3 : ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH EPIDEMIOLOGY
What is the
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 control of health problems. In other words is who get diseases
and why?
In terms of
distribution, it has 2 categories, which is frequency and pattern:
Frequency- includes
the number of such events in a population and the rate of (number of events/cases
per population)
Pattern- the
occurrence of health-related events by time, places, and personal
characteristics.
In terms of determinants,
refer the image below:
(SOURCE FROM http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/)
There are 2
types of epidemiology, also refer the image below:
(source from http://www.slideshare.net/shyamchaturvedi/descriptive-epidemiology)
In term of
descriptive studies:
Person – age,
gender, ethnicity and risk taking behaviour
Place – climate,
geology and population density
Time – Age
(time since birth), seasonality and temporal trends
In terms of
analytic studies, it known as epidemiology triangle or triad is the
traditional model of infectious disease causation.
(source from http://www.onemedicine.tuskegee.edu/Epidemiology/sys_approach.htm)
Ø Agent – microbe that causes the
disease such as biological (bacteria, virus, parasites), physical (radiation,
physical force), chemical (pollutants, drugs), nutrients (nutritional
deficiency).
Ø Host – organism harbouring the
disease in terms of Age, race, sex, socioeconomic status, immunity, and behaviours.
Ø Environment – those external factors
that cause or allow disease transmission.
· Epidemics arise when host, agent, and
environmental factors are not in balance due to:
è New agent appear from nowhere.
è The existing agent is upgraded or it
is more immune.
è Number of susceptible in the
population changed either slowly/ drastically.
è The transmission of agent or growth
of the agent were affected by the environmental changes.
The conclusion is what is the uses of epidemiology in our modern life? I’ll explain the uses of
it.
· Uses of epidemiology in modern life:
- To
monitoring of reports of communicable diseases in the community.
- To
study of whether a particular dietary component influences your risk of
developing cancer.
- Evaluate
the effectiveness and impact of a cholesterol awareness program through experimental
study design.
- To
analyse the historical trends and current data to project future public health
resource needs.
- To
do clinical trial randomising communities into different strategies for risk reduction.
None of this point is mine, please refer it to the link below:
* https://www.cdc.gov/bam/teachers/documents/epi_1_triangle.pdf
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