Introduction to Community Medicine

  1. Epidemiology
  2. Definition

  1. Epi- upon
  2. Demos- people
  3. Logy- study

  1. The study of patterns of disease and ill health in populations
  2. Why study epidemiology
  3. To understand the causes of disease variation and use this knowledge to improve the health of populations/individuals
  4. What do we gain from studying epidemiology
  5. Understanding of what causes/sustains disease in certain populations
  6. Determine primary agent responsible or ascertain causes for a specific disease
  7. Determine characteristics of agent or causative factors
  8. Determine contributing factors
  9. Identify and determine geographic factors
  10. Preventing and controlling disease
  11. Define mode of treatment
  12. Guiding healthcare and healthcare planning
  13. Study of determinants , distribution and frequency of disease
  14. Who gets what and why
  15. Study sick and well people
  16. Compare differences between those who get the disease and those who are spared
  17. Although we are concerned with the health of both individuals and the population as a whole, we must study populations, then apply it on an individual basis
  18. Questions to ask when studying a disease
  19. How does the pattern of this disease vary over time in this population?
  20. How does the place in which the population lives affect the disease pattern?
  21. How does the personal characteristics of the people in the population affect the disease pattern?
  22. 2 type of epidemiology
  23. Descriptive epidemiology
  24. Examining distribution of a disease in a population and observing basic features of its distribution
  25. Analytic epidemiology
  26. Testing a hypothesis about the cause of a disease by studying how exposures relate to the disease
  1. Variables
  2. Person
  3. Age, gender, ethnicity, concurrent disease
  4. Diet, exercise, smoking, risk-taking behavior
  5. Socioeconomic status, occupation
  6. Place
  7. Geographic climate, agents/vectors, population density
  8. Economic development, nutritional practices
  9. Medical practices
  10. Time
  11. Calendar time, seasonality, physiologic cycles
  12. Methods

  1. Method of difference
  2. Examine differences among groups for clues as to why disease rates and health problems vary
  3. Method of agreement
  4. Look for commonality in groups that manifest the same health problem
  5. Method of concomitant variation
  6. Traces how exposure to a hazard varies in relation to disease or other health problems
  7. Method of analogy
  8. Applying a model that characteristics one kind of disease into another one

  1. Definitions
  2. Morbidity
  3. Any departure, subjective or objective from a state of physiological or psychological well being
  4. Mortality
  5. Death, whether due to a disease, natural causes or injury
  6. Incidence
  7. Number of new cases of a disease that occurs during a specified period of time in a population at risk
  8. Prevalence
  9. Measures number of cases (new and old) of the disease at a point (or period) in time
  10. Where does the information come from
  11. ICD (International Classification of Disease)
  12. Coding and classifying mortality data
  13. ICD-CM (International Classification of Disease- Clinical Modification)
  14. Code and classify disease and injury morbidity data from inpatient and outpatient records
  15. Leading Causes of Death in USA

  1. Heart Disease
  2. Neoplasm
  3. Cerebrovascular disease
  4. Chronic pulmonary disease
  5. Accident/injuries
  6. Diabetes Mellitus
  7. Influenza/pneumonia

  1. Leading Causes of Death Worldwide

  1. Ischemic heart disease
  2. Cerebrovascular disease
  3. Lower respiratory infection
  4. HIV/AIDS
  5. COPD
  6. Perinatal disease
  7. Diarrheal disease

  1. What do we do with all this information
  2. PREVENTION
  3. Primary prevention
  4. Preventing occurrence of disease/injury
  5. Secondary prevention
  6. Minimize damage when disease/injury occurs
  7. Tertiary prevention
  8. Follow-up medical care and rehabilitation

Haddon Matrix

Human / Vehicle / Environment
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary