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Epidemiology
Epidemiology for PA Program
43
Medical
Graduate
08/10/2008

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Term
Natural History
Definition
The progression of a disease through successive stages, often used to describe the course of an illness for which no effective treatment is available.
Term
Prevalence
Definition
The proportion of people in a given population that has a particular disease at a point or interval of time. The # of existing cases of the disease of interest in a populations.
Term
Incidence rate
Definition
measeures the rapidity with which newly diagnosed cases of the disease of interest develop.
Term
Incidence case
Definition
A person who is newly diagnosed witha disease of interest.
Term
Selection bias
Definition
A systemic error in a study that arises from the manner in which subjects are sampled.
Term
Confounding
Definition
A systematic error in a study that arises from mixing of the effect of the exposer of interest with other associated correlates of the disease outcomes.
Term
Ecologic Fallacy
Definition
an association between summary characteristics across populations without actual linkage of the characteristics within individual persons. Ex: POpulations may have high incidence rates of AIDS and TB witout the same persons being affected by both conditions.
Term
Positive Predictive Value
Definition
Positive Predictive Value (PV+) is the precentage of persons with positive test results who actually have the disease of interest. Allows estimation of how likely it is that the disease of interest is present if the test is positive. PV+ = True positives/true positives-False positives X 100. PV+ is the precentage of persons with positive test results who have a disease
Term
Negative predictive value
Definition
PV- is defined as the percentage of persons with negative results who do not have the disease of interest. PV-= True negatives/ True negative-false negatives X 100.
Term
Predictive value
Definition
measures concerning the estimation of the probability of the presence or absence of disease.
Term
Sensitivity
Definition
The probability that a person who actually has the disease of interest will have a positive test result.
Term
Specificity
Definition
the probabilty that a person who actually does not have the disease of interest will have a negative (normal) test result.
Term
Cohort
Definition
a group of persons that shares a common attribute, such as birth in a particular year or residence in a particular town, and is followed over time.
Term
Cohort study
Definition
an observational study in which subjects are sampled based on the presence (exposed) or absence (unexposed) of a risk factor of interest. These subjects are followed over time for the development of a disease outcome of interest.
Term
Clinial trail
Definition
an experimental study that is designed to compare the theraputic benefits of two or more treatments.
Term
Case-control
Definition
an observational study in which subjects are sampled based on the presence (cases) or absence (controls) of the disese of interest. Information is collected about earlier exposer to risk factors of interest.
Term
Casuality
Definition
the extent to which the occurrence of a risk factor is responsible for the subsequent occurence of a disease outcome.
Term
Cross section study
Definition
an analytic investigation on which subjects are sampled at a fixed point or period of time, and the associations between the concurrent presence or absence of risk factors and diseases are then investigated.
Term
Cluster
Definition
a group of cases if a disese closely linked in time, place or occurrence, or both.
Term
Misclassification Bias
Definition
incorrect characterization of the status of subjects with regard to a study variable, leading to a distorted conclusion.
Term
Selection bias
Definition
a systematic error in a study that arises form the manner in which subjects are sampled.
Term
Endemic
Definition
an infection is said to be "endemic" in a human population when that infection is maintained in the population without the need for external inputs.
belonging or native to a particular people or country b: characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment.restricted or peculiar to a locality or region; endemic diseases
Term
Endemic rate
Definition
the usual rate of occurrence of particular events within a population.
Term
Pandemic
Definition
an elevated occurrence of a disease accross a wide geographic area, affecting a substantial proportion of a population.
Term
Latent period
Definition
time between exposer to a risk factor and subsequent developement of clinical manifestations of a particular disease. i.e. time between exposer to a risk factor and development of a disease
Term
Epidemic
Definition
a dramatic increase above the usual or expected rate of occurrence of particular events within a population.
Term
False positives
Definition
a test result that is abnormal (positive) despite the true absence of the disease of interest or a study result that incorrectly suggests an effect, when in truth, the purported effect does not exist.
Term
False negative
Definition
a test result that is normal (negative) despite the true absence of the disease of interest or a study result that incorrectly fails to identify a true effect.
Term
Incubation period
Definition
the time interval between contact with a risk factor (often an infectious agent) and the first clinical evidence of the resulting illness.
Term
Absolute risk
Definition
is the decrease in risk of a given activity or treatment in relation to a control activity or treatment. It is the inverse of the number needed to treat Ex:a hypothetical drug which reduces the risk of colon cancer by 50%. Colon CA is rare 1 in 3,000 in every 5 year period. The rate of colon cancer for a 5-year treatment with the drug is therefore 1/6,000, as by treating 6,000 people with the drug, one can expect to reduce the number of colon cancer cases from 2 to 1.
Term
Relative Risk
Definition
Or risk ratio is the likelihood of the occurrence of a particular disease among persons exposed to a given risk factor divided by the corresponding likelihood among unexposed persons.
Term
Sentinel case
Definition
the inital person(s) affected by a particular illness during an outbreak
Term
Bias
Definition
a nonrandom error in a study that leads to a distorted result
Term
Attack rate
Definition
the proportion of persons within a population who develop a particular outcome within a specified period of time.
Term
Disease outbreak
Definition
a sudden, unexpected increase in the occurrence of a disesae within a relatively limited geographic area.
Term
Lead-time bias
Definition
apparent increase in the length od survival of patients witha disease as a result of earlier detection of the disease through the use of a screening procedure.
Term
Case definition
Definition
a set of standard criteria for deciding whether a person has a particular disease or other health-related condition. Helps dx every case the same way regardless of when or where it occurred.
Term
Suspect case
Definition
unexplained symptom
Term
confirmed case
Definition
signs, symtom and confirmed laboratory
Term
probable case
Definition
Acute onset of 3 of the 4 known symptoms of a disease
Term
possible case
Definition
Acute onset of 2 of 4 known symptoms odf a disease.
Term
Epidemic period
Definition
The period of years, decades, days , weeekd or months when the number of cases reported is greater than normal.
Term
Secular (long-term) trends
Definition
annual cases or rate of occurrence of a disease over a period of years
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