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Epidemiology overview
Riris Andono Ahmad

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Public HealthApproach Implementation:

How do you
do it?
Intervention
Evaluation:
What
works?
Risk Factor
Identification:
What is the
cause?
Surveillance:
What
is the
problem?
Problem Response

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Ebola

Classically speaking
• Epi = upon
• Demos = people
• Ology = science
• Epidemiology = the science which deals with what falls upon
people…..
• Bridge between biomedical, social and behavioralsciences

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Simple Old Definitions

Oxford English Dictionary
THE BRANCH OF MEDICAL SCIENCE WHICH TREATS EPIDEMICS

Kuller LH: American Jof Epidemiology 1991;134:1051

EPIDEMIOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF "EPIDEMICS" AND THEIR PREVENTION

Anderson G. In: Rothman KJ: Modern Epidemiology

THE STUDY OF THE OCCURRENCE OFILLNESS

A Modern Definition
Study of the occurrence and distribution of health-related diseases or
events in specified populations, including the study of the
determinants influencing such states, and the application of this
knowledge to control the healthproblem
(Porta M, Last J,Greenland S. A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2008)

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Epidemiological question

• Why some individuals have diseases while others not?

Basic assumptions in epidemiology

• Diseases are notrandomly distributed in population

• Every individual has certain characteristics which increase or reduce

the risk of gettingdiseases

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Purpose of epidemiology
• Identify causes and risk factors ofdiseases
• Identify burden of diseases in given population
• Study the natural history of diseases and its’ prognosis
• Evaluate program intervention
• Provide evidence for public healthpolicies

Classical versus Modern Applications

• Classical: descriptive, observational, field, analytical, experimental,

applied, healthcare, primary care, hospital, CD, NCD, environmental,
occupational, psycho-social, etc
• Modern: risk-factor, molecular, genetic, life-course, CVD, nutritional,
cancer, disaster, etc

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Broad Types of Epidemiology

DESCRIPTIVE EPI ANALYTIC EPI

Examining the distribution of a Testing a specific hypothesis

disease in a population, and about the relationship of a
observing the basic features of its disease to a specific cause, by
distribution in terms of time, conducting an epidemiologic
place, and person. We try to study that relates the exposure
formulate hypothesis, look into of interest to the outcome of
associations ? interest (? Cause-effect
relationship)
Typical study designs: cohort,
Typical study design: case-control, experimental
community health survey design
(synonyms: cross-sectional
study, descriptive study)

Descriptive Epidemiology Is A Necessary

Antecedent of Analytic Epidemiology

To undertake an analytic epidemiologic

study you must first:
• Know where to look
• Know what to control for
• Be able to formulate / test hypotheses
compatible with a-priori lab / field
evidence

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Basic Triad of Descriptive

Epidemiology

THE THREE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

DISEASE WE LOOK FOR IN DESCRIPTIVE
EPIDEMIOLOGY ARE:

• PERSON
• PLACE
• TIME

Personal Characteristics (whom)

• Age
• Gender
• Socio-economic status (education,
occupation, income)
• Marital status
• Ethnicity/race/genetic profile
• Behavior / habits

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Place (where ?)
• Geographically restricted or
widespread (outbreak, epidemic,
pandemic)? Off-shore (tsunami…)
• Climate effects (temperature,
humidity, combined effects..)
• Urban / sub-urban-squatter / rural
• Relation to environmental exposure
(water, food supply, etc)
• Multiple clusters or one?

Time (when ?)

• Changing or stable?

• Clustered (epidemic) or evenly

distributed (endemic)?

• Time-trends: Point source,

propagated, seasonal, secular,
combinations

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History of epidemiology

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John Snow Cholera study

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Modern Epidemiologicalstudy
DOLL & HILL (1950): Used a case-control design to describe and test the
association between smoking and lungcancer.

FRANCES at al. (1950): Huge formal field trial of the Poliomyelitis

vaccine in school children.

DAWBER et al. (1955): Used the cohort design to study risk factors for
cardiovascular disease in the Framingham HeartStudy.

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Topics in epidemiology course

• Measuring diseases burden
• Asociation and causality
• Epidemiological study designs
• Bias and confounding
• Validity
• Epidemiology and disease control

SAP
NO. TOPIK BAHASAN
1 Introduction on teaching methods: History and Evolution Epidemiology
2 Practical Application of Epidemiology
3 Dynamic of Disease Transmission and The Natural History of Disease
4 Measuring and Comparing DiseaseFrequency
T1 Measuring Disease Frequency : Part1
5 Source of Public HealthData
T2 Measuring Disease Frequency : Part2
6 Epidemiology Study Design : Introduction and Observational Design
7 Epidemiology Study Design : ExperimentalDesign
T3 Measuring Association
8 Epidemiology Approach toCausation
9 Bias and Confounding

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SAP
NO. TOPIK BAHASAN
T4 Bias, Confounding and Modification Effect : Part1
T5 Bias, Confounding and Modification Effect : Part2
10 Effect Measures Modification
11 Public Health Surveillance
T6 PH Surveillance and OutbreakInvestigation
12 Screening in Public HealthPractice
13 Epidemiology and Policy
T7 Public Health Screening
14 Ethical and Professionals Issuesin Epidemiology
T8 Effect and Impact Public HealthIntervention

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