Epidemiology

At the end of the Epidemiology course, student should be able to: 1. discuss the definition and basic tenets of epidemiology; 2. discuss the concept of disease, health, disease prevention, and population at risk; 3. conduct research on natural history of disease and epidemiologic model of disease occurrence; 4. explain the epidemiology of ocular diseases; 5. describe disease occurrence in populations in terms of person-time-place model; 6. describe disease occurrence in populations in terms of agent-host-environment model; 7. explain epidemiologic measures of risk of disease in a population such as incidence rate, prevalent rate, relative risk ratio, attributable risk and many others; 8. discuss the principles of screening in disease control and surveillance; 9. describe different study designs in epidemiology and morbidity survey such as case control, cohort study, clinical trials and many others; 10. engage in activities towards community support for eye care; 11. engage in decision analysis and clinical decision making in relation to epidemiological data; and 12. apply biostatistical techniques in epidemiology in relation to Optometry and vision science.

General epidemiologic concepts: Principles and methods of epidemiology. Distribution and dynamics of diseases; description and application of the descriptive epidemiological models of person-time-place, and agent-host-environment relationships with respect to specific diseases. Description of natural history of disease and the epidemiologic methods for prevention and control. Definition and application of epidemiological measures of risks in a population. The concept and practice of screening, and disease surveillance in the control and prevention of diseases. Basic principles and techniques of morbidity surveys, retrospective (case-control) and prospective (cohort) studies. Infectious disease epidemiology. Application of epidemiological principles and methods in decision analysis and clinical decision. Application of basic biostatistical techniques in epidemiology