Answer the following questions. Your answers should present the concept precisely and include an example to demonstrate that you understand the topic. You are encouraged to use supplemental references to help you present a thorough answer.

Part A

Objective – The objective of this assignment is to become familiar with research articles reporting on the prevalence and incidence of disease.

Task – Find two articles in the Canadian Journal of Public Health. One should focus on incidence and one should focus on prevalence. The disease group can be the same or different. Please summarize the articles, focusing on the following issues:

  1. Briefly summarize the articles.
  2. What are the definitions of the numerators and denominators for each of the studies?
  3. Was point or period prevalence reported on in the prevalence related article?
  4. If period prevalence, what time period was used?
  5. What type of incidence was reported on in the incidence related article?
  6. What was the time period used?
  7. In each of the articles, in your opinion, was the denominator appropriate? Why or why not?
  8. In each of the articles, in your opinion, was the case definition (numerator) appropriate? Why or why not?
  9. Did the authors’ conclusions seem valid based on the study they reported? Why or why not?

Please, no more than four typed pages using 12-point font. Also, please attach copies or, ifONLINE, a link to the url of each of your chosen articles. Please use the National Library of Medicine recommendations for citing medical literature:

Part B
Each of your answers should be at least one paragraph in length.

  1. Why is age standardization undertaken in comparing mortality rates between different populations?
  2. What is a “meta–analysis”? Provide an example of a published meta– analysis.
  3. Discuss and distinguish between a “case–control” and a “cohort” study.
  4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using hospital patients as controls in case–control studies.
  5. What are the prerequisites for confounding to occur? What is a confounding effect?