Question

Locate two journal articles, one that uses descriptive epidemiology, and the other that uses analytic epidemiology . Summarize each article and compare and contrast the research designs.

Answer 1

The first paper is of descriptive epidemiology on social support and social structure by R.jay turner and Franco Marino in 1994, published in journal of health and social behaviour. This research was done in order to find out two objectives, first the need of information about mental health variations arise due to social support differences and second is, future possibility decisions that may influence social support, i.e. need to understand distribution of social support in community. Results shows that women experience higher level of social support than men, married reports more support than nonmarried and in SES the higher the level more is the social support. With respect to age highest social support is found in 35-45 groups and lowest in 18-25. The two assumptions were made that variations in social support arise due situational and contemporaneous conditions of life and second assumption is that one’s gender, age and socio economic status define these conditions. With regard to first objective it is found the similarity between social support and major depressive symptoms, positive relationship is found between both social support and depression in women.

The second paper is of analytic epidemiology on Insomnia as a predictor of depression by Chiara Baglioni et.al in Journal of Affective Disorders. Present analysis indicates that nondepressed subjects with insomnia have a twofold risk to develop depression, compared to people with no sleep difficulties. The pooled estimates were high despite the wide variability. The incidence of depression in the group with insomnia at baseline was significantly higher than the incidence of depression in the group without sleep difficulties at baseline. The incidence in percentage of depression in the general population has been reported to be 9.9. Specific Group with sleep difficulties, the incidence of depression is higher in comparison to the general population. Analysis of different sub groups, considering the age-groups showed that the effect of insomnia in predicting subsequent depression is similar in children and adolescents, working age individuals, and elderly individuals.