What is Epidemiology?
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease and it is used to find causes based on presence in different areas, exposure to different factors, and the lifestyle of individuals. One big part of epidemiology is getting information in the first place which can come from many different types of trials such as cross-sectional trials which are surveys / health questionnaires. Another type of trial is a Case-Control trial which compares people with and without disease to find common causes. Epidemiology mostly revolves about the public health approach which refers to controlling disease in a large picture
What are some types of Epidemiology?
Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Infectious disease epidemiologists look for viruses and pathogens to find their spread and control the disease in forms of prevention. An example of infectious disease epidemiology would be Covid-19 and Quarantine.
Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Chronic disease epidemiologists look at chronic diseases such as cancer and research factors such as the origin and health outcome to find prevention methods.
Classical Epidemiology
Classical epidemiology is very population based and it studies populations and how they affect/have been affected by health problems such as disease.
A Short Story On Epidemiology
John Snow was an English Physician who was very interested in the cause of cholera and the spread of it during cholera epidemics. John Snow began to investigate during the third epidemic of epidemiology in 1854. Most people believed that the cause of cholera was due to decay of organic matter and “bad air” but Snow believed that cholera was caused by matter that was contaminated by germs and more specifically, water. Snow noticed that many deaths were happening near a water pump and he decided to alert authorities who disabled the pump which led to less deaths but the amount of deaths were falling either way so the cause couldn’t have been proven. Snow eventually had a “grand experiment” where he was able to connect deaths to two specific private water companies giving full proof of the cause of cholera. John Snow is known as the Father of Epidemiology thanks to his work.
Quick Terms
Incidence – New Cases during a period of time.
Prevalence – New and Existing Cases during a period of time.
Morbidity – Rate of disease
Mortality – Rate of death
Agent – An organism that can cause disease
Related Stories:
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/what-epidemiology
https://www.cdc.gov/training/publichealth101/epidemiology.html
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/what-epidemiology
https://www.britannica.com/science/epidemiology
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7993/
Take Action:
Become an epidemiologist!
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/epidemiologists.htm
