Epidemiology: Basic concepts

Individual excerises

1. State the definition of Epidemiology we use in this course
2. Consider the following: “a multidisciplinary field whose goal is to promote the health of the population through organised community efforts.” What important concept are we defining here?
3. State an example of a population that may be considered in an epidemiology study
4. Is the set of all sickle cell anemia patients in the world a fixed or dynamic population?
5. By considering the definitions given in this course, state whether all catchment populations are fixed, dynamic, or either? In one sentence justify your answer
6. A sample of a population is:
   1. A member of a population
   2. An arbitrary subset of a population
   3. A subset of a population chosen to represent the population - correct
   4. A health-related characteristic of a population
7. Which of the following are not considered to be health-related states:
   1. An individual who is recovered from COVID-19
   2. An individual who currently has COVID-19
   3. A population with an outbreak of COVID-19
   4. An organization that monitors outbreaks of COVID-19
8. Epidemiologists sometimes use the term “disease” to refer to a more general concept. What, in this course, is the name of this concept?
9. State the definition we use in this course of distribution, in relation to a health-related state
10. What is the key difference between “endemic” and “epidemic” in relation to a disease in a population?
11. List 5 concrete examples provided in this course of a health-related state
12. State the definition given in this course of a disease frequency
13. List 3 examples of commonly used disease frequency measures
14. Consider the following: “the change in frequency of a health-related state in a population with respect to the characteristics of person, the place, or time.” What important concept is being defined here?
15. List the 3 dimensions in which the frequency of health-related states of members of a population may change
16. State the definition given in this course of a disease determinant
17. Consider the following: “a determinant brings about change in a health-related state of an individual” is this statement true or false?
18. Consider the following: “the proportion of a candidate population that changes their given health-related state over a specified period of time” what well known frequency measure is being defined here?
19. State the definition given in this course of prevalence
20. List two common frequency measures that involve time and calculation of prevalence

Group exercises

1. Discuss the differences between epidemiology and public health
2. Consider the following: “The set of all people born in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, in the month of May 2021 with Sickle Cell Anemia” Discuss what kind of population this could be (Fixed, Dynamic, Catchment, Candidate).
3. List some possible characteristics that could be used to define populations of interest to epidemiologists
4. List 10 health-related states which are of interest in epidemiology today
5. Discuss the differences between prevalence and incidence.
6. Discuss why cancer studies do not usually aim to compute incidence-related measures for their study populations
7. Consider the following: “the proportion of the population that has a given health-related state at a single geographical location”. This statement is a definition given in this course, but it is incorrect. Fix the definition and determine which term covered in this module that this definition defines.
8. Consider table 1 below. On the left are terms we have defined in the course, on the right are definitions, but in the wrong order. In your groups match the terms to the definitions, and fill in the blanks.

Table 1. Common epidemiology terms and their definitions. Fill in the blanks using the definitions from the module episode.