Causal Concepts
2.1 Natural history of disease Stages of disease The natural history of disease refers to the progression of a disease in an individual over time. This includes all relevant phenomena…
PUBLIC HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY
Introduction to Epidemiologic Study Design
5.1 Etiologic research Hypotheses are nets: only he who casts will catch. Novalis Hypothesis statement The goal of analytic epidemiology is to clarify causal relations between various determinants (“exposures”) and…
The Infectious Disease Process
11.1 The infectious disease process Studying infectious disease epidemiology is important for two different reasons. First, infectious disease epidemiology provided the original model for the study of disease on a…
Case Definitions and Disease Classification
16.1 Case definitions Establishing a case definition In this chapter, we consider criteria for defining cases and the standardized system of disease nomenclature known as the International Classification of Disease…
Diagnostic Testing
A slightly more detailed screening instrument for depression is the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The questions that are included in this instrument are shown in Table 10-2. The nine-item…
Health Disparities
Figure 6-1. Definition of health disparities in health care. (Reproduced with permission from Smedley BD, Stith AY, Nelson AR, eds. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. Washington,…
Cohort Studies
Figure 8-1. Schematic diagram of a cohort study of the relationship between low social integration (unexposed) and risk of suicide. The shaded areas represent the unexposed persons (those with low…
Quality of Care
Translating Evidence into Medical Practice Quality of Care 15 David J. Ballard, Briget da Graca, and David Nicewander HEALTH SCENARIO Mrs. E., a 69-year-old, Spanish-only-speaking Hispanic woman with a history…
Quantitative Systematic Review
Figure 14-1. Flow chart showing inclusion/exclusion of studies in the off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) meta-analysis.*Sensitivity analyses that included the studies excluded because they were limited…
Variations in Care
Figure 16-1. County-level risk-standardized 30-day heart failure readmission rates (%) in Medicare patients by performance quintile for July 2009 to June 2012. (Data from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services;…
