Measures Used in Epidemiology

This article discusses the importance of measures of disease in epidemiology to assess health priorities and disease patterns. It explains how different measures such as incidence, prevalence, and crude death rate support different goals. The article provides examples of how to use these measures to estimate the number of healthcare facilities needed to support patients with Alzheimer’s disease, demonstrate the risks of car-train crashes, and estimate the number of persons who have had leukemia during their lifetimes.

Running head: MEASURES USED IN EPIDEMIOLOGY 1
Measures Used in Epidemiology
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MEASURES USED IN EPIDEMIOLOGY 2
Measures Used in Epidemiology
Measures of disease help in the assessment of health priorities when developing public
health programs because they help to compare and contrast disease patterns (Bhopal, 2016). In
addition, a careful consideration of disease measures ensures that health programs are designed
based on the specific needs of the target population and location. Most importantly, these
measures enhance disease surveillance to establish the most essential hazards. The usage of
hazard analysis critical control point systems relies on data and information collected through
epidemiological methods. Different occurrence measures are essential because they help to
quantify health outcomes and form the basis of etiological and other studies because they enable
researchers to measure the occurrence of disability and death accurately (Friis & Sellers, 2014).
Measures that support different goals
1. To demonstrate the risks of car-train crashes at railroad crossings without warning signals.
Incidence is the most appropriate measure in this case because the goal is to measure the risk
rather than the actual number of car-train crashes.
2. To demonstrate the amount of children’s exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke.
Prevalence would be an ideal measure to support this goal because the actual amount will be
demonstrated. Indeed, the objective of this question is to establish the number of cases of
children’s exposure from a large population.
3. To estimate the number of persons who have had leukemia during their lifetimes.
Lifetime prevalence measure would be used for this goal since it aims to find the actual number
of leukemia cases for the entire life.
4. To estimate the number of healthcare facilities needed to support patients with Alzheimer’s
disease.

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Prevalence is the best measure for this goal because the actual number of healthcare facilities
will be matched to the actual number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
5. To argue that mortality from HIV infection is a more serious public health problem in one
region of the U.S than another.
Crude death rate is the best measure for this goal because it will help to calculate the number of
deaths per population. Hence, the crude death rate in one region can be compared with the rate of
a different location to determine which region has the highest number of deaths compared to the
whole population.

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References
Bhopal, R. S. (2016). Concepts of epidemiology: integrating the ideas, theories, principles, and
methods of epidemiology. Oxford University Press.
Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. (2014). Epidemiology for public health practice. Jones & Bartlett
Publishers.