BASIC
TERMS
TERMS
An increase in the rate of a disease above the usual and expected rate in a population
What is an epidemic?
The study of the distribution and determinants of disease frequency in human populations
What is epidemiology?
The rate of new cases of a disease in a defined population over a defined period of time
What is incidence?
A study that compares individuals affected by a disease with a comparable group of persons who do not have the disease to seek possible causes or associations
What is a case-controlled study?
A systematic error in the design or the conduct of a study that leads to a false association between exposure and disease
What is bias?
The usual and expected rate of a disease in a population
What is the endemic rate?
The number of cases of disease per population
at risk
What is rate?
The total number of cases of a disease existing in a defined population at a specific time
What is prevalence?
A study of a group of people followed over time to see how some disease or diseases develop
What is a cohort study?
An error due to systematic differences in characteristics between those who are selected for a study and those who are not
What is selection bias?
A disease that is required to be reported so that public health measures can be taken to control its spread
What is a notifiable disease?
The occurrence of disease calculated by dividing the number of cases by the size of the population at risk
What is frequency?
The total number of individuals who are potentially susceptible to the disease being studied
What is population at risk?
A study in which the impact of some targeted action on one group of subjects is compared with the effect of a placebo or conventional therapy on a control group
What is an intervention study?
An error that occurs when there is questionable accuracy in the information provided by compared groups due to faulty memory
What is recall bias?
TThe three questions in “shoeleather epidemiology” that provide clues to the cause of a disease or the source of an outbreak
What is “who, when, and where?”
The frequency of occurrence of disease by person, place, and time
What is the
distribution of disease?
Factors that increase people’s chance of contracting a disease
What are risk factors?
A study that looks into the past for causes of diseases from which people currently suffer
What is a retrospective study?
The results due to chance and not a relationship between the variables of interest
What is random variation?
The study of the distribution and determinants of disease frequency in human populations
What is epidemiologic surveillance?
A calculation of what may be expected, based on what has happened in the past under similar conditions
What is probability?
A measure of the strength of the association between exposure and disease
What is relative risk?
A study that starts in the present and monitors groups of people into the future
What is a prospective study?
A factor or explanation other than the one being studied that may affect a result or a conclusion
What is a confounding variable