Problem One

Problem One: Measure
Team One
Content Page
• What is epidemiology?
• Incidence
– Examples
– Measure
• Prevalence
– Examples
– Measure
• Factors affecting Incidence and Prevalence

• Disadvantages of Incidence and Prevalence
• Conclusion
Epidemiology
Epi – “on, upon, befall”, Demo – “people, population, man”, ology – “the study of”
Epidemiology
• Defined as the study of the nature, cause, control, and
determinants of the frequency and distribution of disease,
disability, and death in human population.
• Useful in assessing and explaining the impact of the
followings:
Public Health Clinical

control Prevention
Interventions
measures Programs
Health Services
Other factors that impact the health status of a
population….
Epidemiologist - A public health
scientist
• Responsible for carrying out all useful and effective
activities needed for successful epidemiology
practice
• Uses inductive and deductive reasoning and is

concerned with describing the distribution of disease
and fitting observation about disease occurrence into
known scientific medical knowledge.
Epidemiology – Purposes and Uses
Purposes:
1. Explain the etiology
2. Determine if epidemiological data are consistent with the proposed
hypotheses and with current scientific, behavioral, and biomedical
knowledge
3. Provide basis for developing control and measures and prevention
procedures
Uses:
Assessment, Completing the
Study the history Community
evaluation and clinical picture
of disease diagnosis
research
Look at risks of
Determine the
individual as they Identification of
causes and sources
affect group of syndromes
of disease
populations
Prevalence
Prevalence is a frequently used epidemiological measure of how commonly a disease
or condition occurs in a population. Prevalence measures how much of some
disease or condition there is in a population at a particular point in time.
The prevalence is calculated by dividing the number of persons with the disease or
condition at a particular time point by the number of individuals examined.
For example, in a study 6139 individuals were examined. Of these 6139 people, 519
currently suffered incontinence and so had the condition at the particular time
point of the study. Thus the prevalence of incontinence was 519/6139 = 0.085.
The above study expresses prevalence as a percentage, thus the prevalence of

incontinence is 8.5% (or rounded is 9%).
total number of cases
sample population
Incidence
Incidence measures the rate of occurrence of new cases of a disease or
condition.
Incidence is calculated as the number of new cases of a disease or condition
in a specified time period divided by the size of the population under
consideration who are initially disease free.
Incidence proportion is the number of new cases within a specified time

period divided by the size of the population initially at risk.
For example, if a population initially contains 1,000 non-diseased persons and

28 develop a condition over two years of observation, the incidence
proportion is 28 cases per 1,000 persons, i.e. 2.8%.
The incidence rate is 14 cases per 1000 person-years, because the incidence
proportion (28 per 1,000) is divided by the number of years (two).
(X/2 * number of infected + (Y-X/2)+X * number of infected )

total number of years*number of unaffected+ (X/2 * number of
infected + Y/2 * number of affected )
Factors affecting Incidence rate and
Prevalence rate
• Incidence – Counts new onsets only
• Prevalence – Total population who have disease
• Rate – How fast or slow (speed)
Incidence rate (Increases/Decreases) Prevalence rate (Increases/Decreases)
1. Poor vs. Good prevention of disease 1. Immigration of ill cases vs. healthy
practices person
2. Accessibility of the location i.e. more 2. Emigration of healthy person vs. ill
vs. less (E.g. H1N1, SARS) cases
3. Overall immune system of the 3. Increase in occurrence of new cases
population i.e. weak vs. strong (Increase in incidence) vs. Death
4. Time/Season (e.g. Influenza is highest 4. Prolongation of life cases without cure
in the winter) vs. shorter duration of disease
5. Treatment of disease (Cure) No vs. Yes
Disadvantages of Prevalence
• Diagnosed versus undiagnosed prevalence
– Prevalence cases might be undiagnosed.
– Some may include symptoms
• Data could be faked or inaccurate.

– Different methods of gathering prevalence data
• Prevalence and "cured" or "remission" conditions.

– E.g: Cancer Patients
Disadvantages of Incidence
• People get multiple cases.

– e.g. common cold, fever, Food poisoning etc.
• The actual number of people affected by a

condition in a year can be less than incidence
reports in cases where people get multiple
cases.
Conclusion
• We can use the Incidence and Prevalence to

measure the deaths/injuries caused by RTA.
• However, there are still some limitations to

these 2 measures.

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Problem One: Measure

• Factors affecting Incidence and Prevalence

Public Health Clinical

• Uses inductive and deductive reasoning and is

The above study expresses prevalence as a percentage, thus the prevalence of

total number of cases

Incidence proportion is the number of new cases within a specified time

For example, if a population initially contains 1,000 non-diseased persons and

(X/2 * number of infected + (Y-X/2)+X * number of infected )

• Data could be faked or inaccurate.

• Prevalence and "cured" or "remission" conditions.

• People get multiple cases.

• The actual number of people affected by a

• We can use the Incidence and Prevalence to

• However, there are still some limitations to

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