Descriptive & Analytic Epidemiology

Descriptive & Analytic Epidemiology How we view the world….. • Pessimist: The glass is half empty. • Optimist: The glass is half full. • Epidemiologist: As compared to what? Descriptive epidemiology • Attempts to explain the reason for disease occurrence. • Examines the distribution of disease in populations • Knowledge of such distributions is essential to describe patterns of disease as well as to help identify risk factors • Examines the characteristics of person, place and time • Primarily Hypothesis generating The Person-Place-Time Model • Three main elements of descriptive epidemiology: • The model describes disease occurrence in terms of who is getting disease within a population (Person), where the cases are (Place) and when the cases occur(Time) • Asks: Who? Where? When? Person Time Place Person • Age • Gender • Marital status • Ethnicity/ race • Occupation • Education level • Socioeconomic factors • Stres