Epidemiology terms
What is Epidemiology?
A field of science that studies health problems within populations
What is Modes of Transmission?
different ways in which disease is transferred.
What is Primary prevention?
effort to prevent a disease or disorder before it happens.
What is a pathogen?
organisms or substances such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, mold, or parasites that are capable of producing disease.
What is a Case
a person who has been diagnosed with a
health-related state or event.
What is Descriptive Epidemiology?
is classification of the distribution of health-related states or events.
What is Direct transmission?
the direct and immediate transfer of an agent from a host/reservoir to a susceptible host.
What is Active primary prevention?
behavior change on the part of the individual that prevents a disease or disorder before it happens
What is a Reservoir?
the habitat (living or nonliving) in
or on which an infectious agent lives, grows, and multiplies and where it depends for its survival in nature.
the first disease case in the population.
What is Analytic Epidemiology?
involves finding and quantifying study that involves answering the questions: Why and How. These questions are addressed using hypotheses about relationships and statistical tests for assessing the hypotheses. A comparison group is involved.
What is Airborne transmission?
transfer of bacteria or viruses on dust particles or on small respiratory droplets that may become aerosolized
What is Passive primary prevention?
does not require behavior change on the part of the individual in order to prevent a disease or disorder from occurring (e.g., eating vitamin-enriched foods,
What is Portal of exit?
disease transmission that occurs when the pathogen leaves the reservoir through a portal.
What is a Secondary Case
those persons who become
infected from contact with the primary case
after the disease has been introduced into the
population.
What is Effectiveness?
the ability of a program to pro-
duce benefits among those who are offered the
program.
What is Vector-borne transmission?
transfer of a disease to a human by a vector.
What is Secondary prevention?
activities aimed at health screening and early detection in order to improve the likelihood of cure and reduce the chance of disability or death.
What is Modes of transmission?
different ways in which disease is transferred.
What is a Index Case
the first disease case brought to the
attention of the epidemiologist.
What is Epidemiology triangle?
a model of disease causation that helps us understand the interrelated nature of factors that contribute to disease. The four factors involved in the original concept of the epidemiological triangle, developed for infectious diseases, are as follows: host, agent, environment, and time.
What is Mechanical transmission?
vector-borne disease transmission processes that occur when the pathogen, in order to spread, uses a host
What is Tertiary prevention?
efforts to limit disability by providing rehabilitation where disease, injury, or a disorder has already occurred and caused damage.
What is Portal of entry?
the entryway through which
the pathogen or disease-causing agent enters the
body.
an individual (or a group of individuals) who has all the signs and symptoms of a disease or condition but has not been diagnosed as having the disease, or had the cause of the symptoms connected to a suspected pathogen.