EpidemiologyLesson 1 of 2 in the course Epidemiology for Informing Population/Community Health Decisions

Descriptive, Analytic, and Observational Epidemiologic Study Designs

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Epidemiology uses different approaches to describe health events and investigate why they occur. This lesson introduces the two main branches of epidemiology and explains how descriptive findings can lead to analytic investigations.

Descriptive epidemiology describes the occurrence of health events in a population. It examines how often events occur and how they are patterned by person, place, and time.

All flashcards

Experimental study
A study in which investigators assign an intervention and observe subsequent outcomes.
Cohort study
An observational design that compares disease occurrence between groups with different exposure status.
Case-control study
A design that selects participants by outcome status and compares their previous exposures.
Cross-sectional study
A study that measures exposure and health outcome at approximately the same time.
Prevalence
The proportion of people in a population who have a condition at a specified time.

Quiz questions

  1. What distinguishes an experimental study from an observational study?Answer: Investigators assign an intervention in an experimental study.
  2. What makes a cohort study prospective?Answer: Participants are followed forward to observe outcomes.
  3. How are participants selected in a case-control study?Answer: They are selected by outcome status, and previous exposures are compared.
  4. Why can a cross-sectional study generally not establish whether an exposure preceded an outcome?Answer: It measures exposure and outcome at approximately the same time.
  5. What do epidemiological rates quantify?Answer: The occurrence of an event in a population over time or during a specified period.

Based on Population Health for Nurses by Jessica Ochs, Sherry L. Roper, Susan M. Schwartz (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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