Epidemiology Homework Help

Epidemiology is the study of disease patterns in a population. What makes epidemiology so fascinating is that it can be approached from two different angles, and used for many different purposes. The descriptive approach looks at the problem from an observational stance, while the analytical approach studies the problem using statistical analysis.

Epidemiology uses scientific findings and data to describe and analyse the patterns of diseases in populations. What this means is that epidemiology can be used at various stages of an outbreak, with different goals in mind.

Epidemiology uses two different methodological approaches: descriptive and analytical.

The descriptive approach looks at the problem from an observational stance, while the analytical approach studies the problem using statistical analysis. What’s more, both approaches are applied differently depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with your research!

The descriptive approach is concerned with describing and analyzing patterns of illness in populations. The descriptive approach studies the distribution of different aspects of health and illness among different populations.

What are some examples of diseases or factors that can be studied using the descriptive approach?

Some examples of diseases that can be studied using the descriptive approach include:

The common cold

AIDS

Eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.

The analytical approach to studying epidemiology use statisticcal analysis to study the distribution and determinants of health in populations. In this approach, one can determine the probability of health-related outcome.

The analytical approach is mostly used in public health and clinical epidemiology. What are the outcomes that an analyst may study? There are many of them, but most importantly: mortality rates or incidence rates (in a population) for different types of disease as well as time periods; risks factors such as age, sex etc.; distribution of diseases

The application of epidemiology

For nurses and healthcare professionals, epidemiological studies provide the valuable data that helps in monitoring the health of populations.

Specific examples of where epidemiological studies are applied include:

Surveillance, which is the ongoing process by which health authorities monitor both infectious and non-infectious diseases to identify changes in disease patterns or distribution that might signal a developing public health problem.

It can also be used to measure morbidity (illness) levels among different populations.

Another example would be research into causes of illness, such as identifying links between smoking and cancer risk or determining whether there are any genetic differences among people with diabetes from various racial backgrounds. Studies like this often help identify important new risks for illnesses so doctors may better diagnose patients based on their individual circumstances when they present symptoms rather than just classifying them by race/ethnicity.