Fundamentals of Epidemiology

At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. explain the basic principles of disease investigation and control; 2. describe types of epidemiological studies; 3. construct the etiological relationships in disease occurrence; 4. evaluate the mode of disease transmission; 5. explain basic epidemiological study designs-cross sectional studies, cohort or prospective studies, case-control studies and many others; 6. organise disease epidemiological survey; 7. examine disease causation models; 8. analyse the epidemiological triad; 9. discuss disease occurrence; 10. design measures in disease prevention and control; 11. distinguish quantitative and qualitative assessment of screening procedures; 12. measure cause-effect relationship and; 13. explain dose-effect and dose-response relationship; 14. construct an epidemiological curve; 15. determine the cyclicity in disease occurrence; 16. analyse the measurements of health status of a community; 17. explain exposure assessment; 18. state what is attributable risk assessment?; 19. organise an epidemiological investigation and reporting; 20. compare accident and injuries; and 21. explain differences between incidence and prevalence rates.

Historical development, definition, type, scope and application of epidemiology. Introduction to the basic principles and methods of epidemiology. Epidemiologic model of disease occurrence. Causal inferences in disease causation – unifactorial model, multi-factorial model, Web of causation, criteria for asserting etiological relationships in disease occurrence. Agent-host environment relationships in disease occurrence. Person-time-place descriptive epidemiological model. time-relationships in disease occurrence – natural history of disease, time of onset of a disease, time of diagnosis of disease, incubation period, time incidence function of a disease, mode of transmission of disease, epidemic curves, epidemiologic year of a disease, cyclicity (secular versus seasonal) in disease occurrence. Strategies and methods in the prevention and control of diseases. Quantitative and qualitative assessment of screening procedures and their strength. Measurement of health status. Assessment of etiologic relationships based on exposure and susceptibility factors – relative risk, attributable risk, attributable risk percent, population attributable risk and odds ratio. Basic epidemiologic study designs – cross-sectional studies, cohort or prospective studies, case-control studies, randomized clinical trials and community trials. Investigation and reporting of disease outbreak. Survey of the applications of epidemiology to diseases, injuries, and non-disease health problems, cause effect relationship.