SOCI 365 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: International Health, Safe Sex, Health System
5 May 2018
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SOCI 365 - Lecture 3 : Epidemiology
Reminder: International health more for infectious diseases *
Basics
What is epidemiology?
• The study of how often diseases occur in different groups of people and why. Epidemiological
information is used to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent illness and as a guide to the
management of patients in whom disease have already developed
• How a disease is spread and understand what that target population is here
• Tool to narrow all the information you have
• For example: old people the rate of diseases are higher and their cases are worse. What can we do
to prevent this? Vaccinate the elderly and do it for free? Maybe that is a good idea!
Concepts
• Distribution
o Epidemiology with the frequency and pattern of health events in a population. Frequency
includes not only the number of such events in a population but also the rate or risk of
disease in the population
• Determinants
o Epidemiology is often used to search for causes and other factors that influence the
occurrence of health related event such as diseases, syndromes, and injuries
• Patterns refers to the occurrence of health related events by time, place and person
• Place patterns include geographic variation, urban/rural differences, and location of work sites or
schools
• Personal characteristics include demographic factors which may be related to risk of illness, injury
or disability such as age, sex, marital status and socioeconomic status, as well as behaviors and
environmental exposures
• Frequency refers not only to te number of health events such as the number of cases of meningitis
or diabetes in a population, but also to the relationship of that number to the size of the population
• The resulting rate allows COPY
What are we looking for?
• Any factor, whether event, characteristic, or other definable entity, that brings about a balance in a
health condition or other defined characteristic
Types of determinants
• Social
• Genetic/biology
• COPY
Social determinants of health
• Picture
• Ex: diabetes type 2 most people are from poor neighborhood and the unemployment rate is
very high. Does economy has something to do with diabetes as well? What is the link to
socioeconomic status?
o Its cheaper to buy fast food than it is to buy healthy foods
o Poor neighborhoods likely have more fast food restaurants around them than markets and
grocery stores
o Because the unemployment rate is higher you do not have the money to buy a gym
membership. Also unemployment rate is linked to depression, where you wouldn’t eat
very healthy
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Reminder: international health more for infectious diseases * What is epidemiology: the study of how often diseases occur in different groups of people and why. Concepts: distribution, epidemiology with the frequency and pattern of health events in a population. What are we looking for: any factor, whether event, characteristic, or other definable entity, that brings about a balance in a health condition or other defined characteristic. Social determinants of health: picture, ex: diabetes type 2 most people are from poor neighborhood and the unemployment rate is very high. Also unemployment rate is linked to depression, where you wouldn"t eat very healthy: health care system easier to find a doctor in a rich neighborhood. When: aids, when: late 70s, where: in the gay community, or people using needles, so this is our target population go into gay neighborhoods and talk about safe sex. Or create a policy for safe needle injections. Triangle: picture, tool to understand the disease.
