Measures of Morbidity

Practical Session
 Group 1

Explain Why….
 Arthritis is common (“prevalent”) in the elderly
 Rabies is rare.
 Influenza is only common during epidemics.
New cases occurring during 1/10/1990 - 30/9/1991 =
Total population at midpoint (1st of April, 1991)=
Incidence rate during the year (Oct 1, 1990-Sept 30, 1991=
Point prevalence on October 1, 1990?
Period prevalence, October 1, 1990 to September 30, 1991? 3
 Group 2
• In Iraq, 2017 the total population is 38 millions, 70%
are urban. The total number of TB cases was 8000
patients. The cure rate is 80%. In 2018, the total
population increased to 39 million with similar
urban/rural ratio. There was 8500 new cases of TB
reported, 80% of them were among urban population.
Calculate the following:
• Prevalence of TB in 2010.
• Prevalence of TB in 2011
• Incidence of Tb in 2011
• Incidence of TB among urban, and among rural
population
 Group 2
1. Incidence and prevalence tell different stories
about the same health problem. Which one
provides the most useful information about the
risk of illness? Explain your opinion.
2. In what situations does the prevalence increase or
decrease?
3. In what situations does the incidence increase or
decrease?
 Group 3
 A class has 100 student enrolled.
 On the 30th of September five of the students who attended class
reported sore throat,
 All of them continued to be ill on the 1st of October but recovered
within 3 days.
 On 14 October, 10 students had sore throat and 4 of them were
absent due to illness.
 During October, 30 different students had sore throat and 8 of
them were absent due to illness
 None of these students was ill at the beginning of the month.

Calculate:
A. A point prevalence on October 1 and October 14
B. The period prevalence ; October 1-10 and for the month of October
C. The Incidence rate of sore throat for October
 Group 3

If the prevalence of a disease has been more or less constant for the
past ten years (i.e., new cases have been balanced by cures or deaths
of prevalent cases),

A) What would be the effect of a new program that reduces the

incidence of the disease?
B) What would be the effect if a large number of healthy people
immigrated into the population?
 Group 4

The relationship between incidence and prevalence depends greatly

on the natural history of the disease state being reported.
A) In the case of a disease with high, spontaneous rate of resolution
(as influenza epidemic), what is the effect of high incidence on
the prevalence?
B) In the case of a disease that has a low (or zero) cure rate, but
where maintenance treatment permits sustained survival, what
is the effect of high incidence on the prevalence?
 Group 4
• In a camp for internally displaced people, there
were 3000 families with a total population of
16,000 individuals; 15% of them were below 5
years. The physician working in the health unit
noticed an increase in number of gastroenteritis
(GE) cases particularly among children aged <5
years. On one day, he conducted a survey on all
the families and identified 380 cases of GE among
<5 children.
• What morbidity measure we can calculate from
the above data? Why?
 Group 5
• In City X in Iraq, 2016, there was an increasing concern
on the social media that large number of the primary
school children are using glasses for refractive errors
(RE). The health authorities had responded through
conducting a scientific research to see the size of the
problem among this group.
• Among the 1300 eligible participants, only 1200 agreed
to participate.
• How to measure the non-response? Is it a ratio, rate?
• Among the 1200 children in the study group, there
were 700 males and 500 females.
• Calculate male to female ratio? Why is it a ratio?
 Group 5
• There were 133 male children and 100 female
children with different types of RE.
• Calculate the prevalence of RE among males,
female and the total study group.
• Upon reviewing available literatures, they found
that the national prevalence of RE in the country
is 20% and the 95% confidence interval of the
reported RE in this study was 18-22%?
• What would they tell the population in the city
who think that RE in their city is higher than other
parts of the country?
 Group 5
In City A with population of 1,000,000, there were 20,000
deaths from all causes in 2015. There were 1,000 men
and 2,000 women with tuberculosis of whom 100 men
and 500 women died. Using the available data answer the
following statements:
(a) Case fatality rate for tuberculosis is??.
(b) TB is more severe in ??
(c) The prevalence of TB is higher in ?? than ??.
(d) The incidence of TB is lower in ?? compared to ??.
(e) The prevalence rate of TB in this population is ?? per
1000 in 2015.