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Epidemiology, Disease Transmission, Prevention, and Control
Published in Julius P. Kreier, Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
Epidemiologists use a reasoning process based on biological inferences derived as a result of observation of disease occurrence in population groups. Epidemiologists integrate the concepts and methods of other disciplines such as statistics, sociology, and biology into their field. By using such multidisciplinary methods, they are usually able to establish the etiology of a specific disease or group of diseases. Epidemiological studies may provide the basis for the evaluation of the efficacy of disease preventive procedures and public health practices as well as of health services. Epidemiological methods can be applied to the study of any disease or condition, acute or chronic, infectious or noninfectious, communicable or non-communicable, and to the study of health as well.
Cocaine and the Fetus: Methodological Issues and Neurological Correlates
Published in Richard J. Konkol, George D. Olsen, Prenatal Cocaine Exposure, 2020
Efforts to determine whether prenatal exposure to cocaine damages the human nervous system are fraught with methodological difficulties. Unlike the experimental model where variables are fixed by the investigator, the clinical setting is laden by the many factors that act in concert to influence the fetal or postnatal environment. Although epidemiological methods offer some control over these extraneous or “confounding” variables, the erratic high-risk behaviors associated with drug use introduce additional elements that make inferences in clinical studies regarding cocaine-related associations more vulnerable to bias, e.g., selection bias resulting from a high level of attrition. This chapter focuses on the methodological problems that have arisen in the clinical research of fetal cocaine exposure and provides a broad overview of the salient clinical findings associated with cocaine exposure (Table 1.1), with the exception of strokes and seizures, which are discussed elsewhere.
Epidemiology
Published in Samuel C. Morris, Cancer Risk Assessment, 2020
Epidemiological methods are applicable. The first step is usually a survey of the site, to see if any sources of carcinogens are present. This should be thorough and work back in time as far as possible as well as looking at present conditions. It should include review of directories, maps, and aerial photographs to detect existing or past storage tanks, waste dumps, or similar potential sources of chemical carcinogens, evaluations of private and public water supplies, examination of building floor plans, investigation of heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems, and samples taken for analysis of any suspicious chemicals or materials. Next, broad-range environmental samples are taken. Special attention should be given to the areas where the cases worked, to determine exposure there as well as to determine if there is any difference between their working situation and others. Recalling the lag time involved in cancer, changes in technology, work practices, personnel assignments, etc., must be investigated over past decades. If no exposure is identified which from available dose-response information could suggest the increased cancer rate, some support in favor of a random cluster has been established.
Ten-year cost-consequence analysis of weight loss on obesity-related outcomes in privately insured adults with obesity in Saudi Arabia
Published in Journal of Medical Economics, 2023
Hussain A. Al-Omar, Nasser Aljehani, Ali Alshehri, Abdullah Al-Khenizan, Faisal Al-Shammari, Abdulmohsen Abanumay, Volker Schnecke, João L. Carapinha, Saleh A. Alqhatani
Another Saudi-based study on the economic burden of overweight, obesity, and six NCDs (coronary heart disease, stroke, T2DM, breast cancer in women, colon cancer, and asthma) included direct medical, absenteeism, and presenteeism expenses arising from excess weight43. The authors reported a direct cost impact of USD 3.8 billion and absenteeism and presenteeism costs of USD 15.5 billion in 2019 International USD. The estimates were based on the population attributable fraction (PAF) method, most often used at the population level as an epidemiological method for evaluating an exposure’s effects on population health. The method calculated an approximate fraction of a population’s health outcome that may be linked to obesity to estimate how much of an effect avoiding or lowering obesity might have on the health and cost outcomes of the population. One significant limitation of the PAF method is that it assumes a causal relationship between overweight and obesity (the exposure) and the six NCDs (the outcome). There may be confounding or other factors that could account for the observed association between the exposure and the outcome, resulting in overestimation or underestimation of the PAF estimates for the exposure44,45. Consequently, the direct cost impact reported in their research is not easily compared to our results; however, like our study, they also reported that T2DM was the largest cost driver.
Medical anthropology and epidemiology: a collaborative venture for mental health research in India
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2021
Chittaranjan Subudhi, Ramakrishna Biswal
Epidemiological study has three major components: (i) descriptive: it is concerned with the onset and course of the mental illness, basically focussing on the distribution of the disease; (ii) analytic: it is concerned with the aetiology of the mental illness; and (iii) experimental: it is concerned with the data or information which can help the development, evaluation and planning of the services aimed at prevention, control and treatment of the mental illness. The epidemiological study is able to find out the patterns, causes and effects of a particular illness in a defined population. Epidemiological method is used in mental health research (known as psychiatric epidemiology) to identify the distribution and determinants of mental illness in a specified population. Psychiatric epidemiology is also concerned with the impact of factors such as poverty, violence, urbanization and social mobility on the mental health of people in the rapidly changing society (Lovell & Susser, 2014). The psychiatric epidemiology is helpful in examining the epidemiological endeavours and their forerunners in global and local perspectives (Lovell, 2014).
Review of poliovirus modeling performed from 2000 to 2019 to support global polio eradication
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2020
Kimberly M. Thompson, Dominika A. Kalkowska
IC did not consider economics in any of its modeling. As shown in Table 1, IC developed a few SC models and applied them prospectively to address specific questions. However, most of the publications by IC present statistical analyses of existing, retrospective data with a focus on answering specific questions driven by the data. Extrapolation of the results and inferences from statistical models requires assuming that the data collected in the past provide a good representation of the future and directly relate to the question asked. With eradication efforts driving cases to zero, epidemiological models lose their ability to make inferences based on comparing observed retrospective cases for different interventions, because as the polio cases disappear the data become sparse and controlling the data for confounders and other biases becomes difficult. The case–control epidemiological methods used by IC remain highly sensitive to the selection of cases and controls, and any limitations associated with the data used to perform the analyses.