Epidemiologists Analyzing Disease Frequency Essay

Epidemiologists Analyzing Disease Frequency - Essay Example Measures: Attributable proportion among total population is the appropriate measure. In the present scenario, freshman students who gained weight in a period of one year are calculated from total freshman college students. Total number of college student is the denominator. Measures: The cumulative incidence is a measure of occurrence of new cases of the disease of interest in the population. It is the proportion of individuals who, on an average, will contract the disease of interest over a specified period of time. The estimated risk (R) is a proportion between the new cases and the persons at risk. The numerator is the number of newly affected persons (A), called cases by epidemiologist, and the denominator is the size (N) of the unaffected population. R= New cases (A)/Persons at risk (N) Prevalence indicates the number of existing case of the disease of interest within a population. Specifically, the point prevalence (P) refers to the proportion of a population that has the disease of interest at a particular time, for example, on a given day. This value is estimated by dividing the number of existing affected individuals or cases (C), by the number of persons in the population (N). Prevalence (P) = Cases(C) / Number of people (P) Measures: Relative risk (RR) is the ratio of the incidence of the disease or death among those exposed and the incidence among those who are not exposed. The term 'risk ratio' is also used to refer to relative risk. RR = incidence among exposed / incidence among unexposed. In this case, the incidence is 60/1000 among those exposed and 20/1000 among those who are unexposed. Therefore, the relative risk is 60/20 = 3. This indicates that risk of death among exposed group is 3 times than that of the unexposed group. The prevalence of a health condition is the existing number of cases of that condition in the population. State whether the factors listed below are likely to increase or decrease the prevalence of a