“Causality" in Epidemiological Studies

“Causality" in Epidemiological Studies

Introduction

Epidemiology of Influenza and Children According to to the Centers for Disease Control “Epidemiology is a study of the distribution and determinants of health related states or events in specified populations, and application of this study to the control of health problems”, and the mission is to have optimal health for an entire community. “Determinants of health events are those factors, exposures, characteristics, behaviors, and contexts that determine (or influence) the patterns”. To investigate the epidemiology of influenza on children, an epidemiologist may use an analytic approach of epidemiological investigation, through an organized process of steps which is outlined later in this article. Epidemiological investigations, such as both the descriptive and analytical epidemiological investigations, help to evaluate and guide the development of programs and policies which intend to improve health outcomes of the public.

Casuality is based on the cause and effect of epidemiology diseases. Descriptive epidemiology helps to answer questions regarding occurrences of diseases among people, places, and time while painting a picture of the who, what, when, where, and how of each of these occurrences. While the analytical epidemiological approach asks, which determinants had an influence on the etiology of epidemic diseases (Olsen, 1996). Descriptive and analytic epidemiology are different from each other because analytic investigations focus more on comparisons, while descriptive epidemiology focuses more on determinants.

Discussion

The most basic and first approach to address in an epidemiologic study includes obtaining and reviewing routine, research, and epidemiological data. Routine data consists of information taken from the United States census and demographics from birth, death, and surveillance records. Research data consists of medical and health records. The use of specifically drawn data from surveys specific to the health status and population in question is known as epidemiological data (Krieger and Zierler, 1997). Obtaining this data is part of an epidemiologic method, “used to describe health and disease phenomena and to investigate the factors that promote health or influence the risk or distribution of disease”. Following are some criteria to determine the causality of epidemiological studies:

The Epidemiological Triangle

An epidemiological triangle is a model used for to determine causation of an infectious disease. An external agent, environment, and susceptible host are the triad components which make up the epidemiologic triangle. Epidemiologists look at influenza in children and can determine each triad component of the epidemiological triangle. An epidemiologist may determine that the external agent is influenza, the environment is the temporal pattern between January and May in the United States, and the susceptible hosts are humans for influenza type B and C, and are humans and animals for influenza A. The concept behind using the epidemiologic triangle is to determine what can break the cycle from continually cycling to restore health for communities (Koopman and Lynch, 1999).

Agent components

In addition to bacteria, viruses, fungi and all sorts of parasites must be included among the etiological agents to physical, chemical, psychological, social and cultural rights. The epidemiological triad is altered to events such as toxic ...