Question

recent applications of epidemiology. ◦ Introduce important studies in which epidemiologists identified risk factors for cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and other conditions. ◦ Explain applications of epidemiology for the study of infectious disease, environmental health, chronic disease, psychological and social factors in health, and molecular and genetic studies.

Answer 1

Epidemiology is a scientific discipline with sound methods of scientific inquiry at its foundation.It is data driven and relies on a systematic and unbiased approach to the collection,analysis and interpretation of data.Basic epidemiologic methods tend to rely on careful observation and use of valid comparison groups to assess whether what are observed,such as the number of cases of disease in a particular area during a particular time period or the frequency of an exposure among persons with disease differs from what might expected.

Application:It is not just the study of health in a population,it also involves applying knowledge gained by the students to community based practice.like the practice of medicine,the practice of epidemiology is both a science and an art.To make the proper diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment for a patient,the clinician combines medical knowledge with experience,clinical judgement and understanding of the patient.Similarly the epidemiologists uses the scientific methods of descriptive and analytical epidemiology as well as experience,understanding of local conditions in diagnosing the health of community and proposing appropriate ,practical and acceptable public health interventionsto control and prevent disease in the community.

Epidemiology,the study of disease pattern in populations,encompasses a broad array of subject matter,including subspecialities that concentrate on such domains as clinical trails of pharmaceutical agents,such outcomes as reproductive and developmental effects ,infectious disease and chronic diseases such risk factors as occupation,nutrition and alcoholism and special population.It includes controlled clinical evaluations of different treatment methods ,comparative statement of lifestyle factors,estimation of risks of occupational factors,and cross-sectional and time series analysis of factors that may affect health.