Integrated HIV Research and Prevention

EPIDEMIOLOGY DEFINITION

• Study of distribution and determinants of disease, status of health, disability, morbidity and mortality in population.

(Friis)

• Distribution
  • Frequency of disease occurrence in population
  • Time, place person (when, where, who)
• Determinants
  • Factors to bring the change in health
  • What, why, how
• Population
  • Description of health phenomena in population groups (time, place, person), rather than individuals
  • Population medicine, Population health (Community health)

EPIDEMIOLOGY AIMS

• To Describe health status of population - distribution and determinants
• To Explain the etiology of disease, to discover the causal factors
• To Predict the occurrence of disease, to plan intervention and allocation of resources
• To control the distribution of diseases and prevent new diseases

EPIDEMIOLOGY GOAL

• Assessing the public health importance of diseases and identifying the population at risk.
• Understanding the natural history of disease and factors influencing its distribution
• Planning intervention to prevent and control diseases

EPIDEMIOLOGY APPROACH

• Interdisciplinary composition
  • Biological science of man and agents
  • Physical environment science
  • Social and behavioral science concerned with human society
  • (Clinical medicine, microbiology, social and behavioral science, environmental science, biostatistics)
• Quantification
  • Systematic collection : Surveillance
  • Construction of tables and figures by time, place and person
• Special Vocabulary
  • Epidemic,
  • Prevalence, incidence
  • Association, risk (relative risk, odds ratio)

Summary of Epidemiology Research Paper

• Objective .

• Indicate the research question that the study was intended to investigate.

• Design:

• How does the study appear to have been planned, in the following respects: What was to be the exposure and outcomeWho was to be studied (intended study population)? What was the timing of this study (time orientation relative both to real time and to the timing of the disease process)?

• Conduct:

• How was the study carried out, in two main respects: Who was actually studied (how representative of the intended study population was the actual study population? What data were actually collected (what were the reported observations and measurements)?

• Measurements .

• What were the important measurements for exposures and outcomes,
• and how were they made?

• Analysis:

• What kinds of data analysis are presented?
• Formal statistical estimates from observations in a sample of a population)?
• Tests of formal statistical hypotheses (hypothesis testing)?

• Result:

• The main result should answer the research question identified above: What is the major finding of this study (the result, concisely and objectively stated)?

• Conclusions:

• What did the authors infer from these results?

• Evaluate Explanations and Conclusions

a. Is chance a likely explanation for the results?

b. Is selection bias a likely explanation for the results?

c. Is information bias a likely explanation for the results?

d. Is confounding a likely explanation for the results?

e. Are the authors conclusions reasonable in terms of the information presented?

f. Applicability beyond the actual study population (generalizibility)?

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