OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MEDICINE BATCH 2017

FMCH II

DESCRIPTIVE EPIDEMIOLOGY
Lectured by Dra. Garcia (012115)

DESCRIPTIVE EPIDEMIOLOGY
Epidemiology:

-provides valuable information to enable health

care providers and administrations to efficiently
allocate resources

-the distribution of health and disease in groups of

people and the study of the factors that influence
this distribution

FACTORS
AFFECTING
DISEASE
FACTORS AFFECTING
DSE DITRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION

-modern epidemiology also encompasses the

evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic
modalities and the delivery of health care services

AGENTAGENT

-hence, it is the basic science and fundamental

practice of public health
Epidemiology differs from clinical medicine in
two important regards:
1.
2.

Epidemiologist study groups of people,

not individuals
Epidemiologists study well people in
addition to sick people and try to find out
the crucial difference between those
stricken and those spared

- etiologic factors for disease

1. Nutritive
-excess of deficiency can disease
3. Chemical
-allergens, poisons, irritants
4. Physical agents
- ionizing radiation, UV light
5. Infectious agents

Descriptive Epidemiology:

PERSON
PERSON

-concerned with describing the general

characteristics of the distribution of disease
particularly:

- what populations or subgroups do or do not

develop a disease

1.
2.
3.

Agent
Person
Environment (place and time)

-provide clues leading to the formation of an

etiologic hypothesis that is consistent with
existing knowledge of disease occurrence
-uncover patterns of occurrence suggesting
etiologic relationships and can lead to planning
effective prevention and educational programs

1. Characteristics one is born with

-gender (hormonal differences and anatomic
differences)
-genetic makeup (sex-liked diseases eg. Color
blindness)
2. Characteristics that are modified or
acquired with time
-immunologic experience (small exposures of a
single agent can be protective or harmful)

FMCH II: Descriptive Epidemiology Trans by MRPC 2015

"If you are expose in small amounts, there is a

possibility that you will develop immune response
to it. However, prolonged exposure may
eventually develop disease in one person"

"A geographic association may be explained in

terms of the occurrence of a disease"
Criteria suggesting association to a place:
1.

Eg. Vaccines, carcinogens

-aging and modification of disease by time
(acquisition of immunity by acquiring little
immunity
3. Transitory
-fatigue

Eg. Endemic goiter (if a man from manila moves to

mountain province, the incidence rate of having
goiter would be the same as the incidence rate of
those living already in the area)
2.

-nutritional status (eating a lot: you will feel good)

4. Behavior
-lifestyle (eg.
hypertension)

Sedentary

lifestyle

prone

to

-what geographic location is most or least

common

1.
2.
3.
4.

be

distributed

Climate (extremes: frostbite or heat

stroke)
Diet
Cultural practices
Food preparation and storage method

Eg. In central Luzon, use of preservatives, sugar,

and salt
5.

Population density

Eg. Communicable disease (air-borne and spread

person to person
Exposure to pollutants
Presence of vectors

4.
5.

Healthy person entering the area become

ill with a frequency similar to the
indigenous inhabitants
Inhabitant while have left the area do not
show high rates
Species other than man inhabiting the
same area show similar manifestation

TIME TIME
how frequency of occurrence over time
1. POINT EPIDEMIC
-response of a group of persons to a source of
infection or contamination to which they were
exposed almost simultaneously
-peak of the curve is only one

-number of people per square kilometer

6.
7.

-people of the same ethnic groups living at

different provinces will have different incidence
rate of a certain disease

3.

PLACE
PLACE

may

High frequency rates are not observed in

persons of similar ethnic groups
inhabiting other areas

"Dose is not assoc with ethnic group"

"You may have all four"

Factors
that
geographically:

High frequency rates are observed in all

ethnic groups inhabiting the area

-one exposure at one time (one peak in the

epidemic curve)
2. CYCLIC FLUCTUATIONs/
VARIATIONS
3. SECULAR CHANGES

SEASONAL

Eg. Mosquitoes

FMCH II: Descriptive Epidemiology Trans by MRPC 2015

-changes occur gradually over long periods of

times (several decades)
4. CLUSTERING IN TIME

PROGRESSION
IN SCIENTIFIC
PROCESS
PROGRESSION
IN SCIENTIFIC

PROCESS
-casual observation

-e interval between the precipitating event and

onset of illness can be measured with precision
Eg. Post-partum syndrome/ psychosis (due to
separation anxiety)

COMBINATION
OF OF
PERSON,
COMBINATION
PERSON,PLACE,
PLACE,
ANDTIME
and TIME
-called as migrant population studies

-hypothesis formation (time or place or person vs.

disease)
-controlled observation
-experimental studies

--END--

-changes on place over time

1.

Determines whether high rates of certain

diseases noted in certain countries are
intrinsic to the inhabitants of that country

-certain disease is very common to that place

-" is it the person or e place?"
2.

Demonstrated that certain places do

possess characteristic of significance in
the etiology of certain diseases
independent of the people who inhabit
those places

-endemic goiter
-"it is not about the person but the geographic
are"
3.

Assess significance from the points of

view of risk of a particular disease of the
years spent in the homeland prior to
migration relative to those spent in the
host country

-lifestyle dependent
-those who migrated to the states have decrease
incidence of developing breast ca than those
Asians born in the US

FMCH II: Descriptive Epidemiology Trans by MRPC 2015