RT Book, Section
A1 Greenberg, Raymond S.
A1 Daniels, Stephen R.
A1 Flanders, W. Dana
A1 Eley, John William
A1 Boring, John R.
SR Print(0)
ID 545102
T1 Chapter 2. Epidemiologic Measures
T2 Medical Epidemiology, 4e
YR 2005
FD 2005
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071416375
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=545102
RD 2024/04/24
AB A  variety  of  measures  are  employed  in  epidemiology,  each  of  which  has  a  specific  definition  and  use.  When  characterizing  the  likelihood  of  developing  a  disease  within  a  specified  period  of  time,  the  appropriate  measure  is  risk.  Prevalence  is  used  to  describe  the  proportion  of  a  population  that  is  affected  by  a  disease.  When  measuring  the  rate  of  new  occurrences  of  a  disease,  incidence  is  the  appropriate  measure.  Case  fatality  is  used  to  describe  the  natural  history  of  a  disease  and  corresponds  to  the  proportion  of  affected  persons  who  die  from  that  illness.  Conversely,  survival  is  the  likelihood  of  escaping  death  from  that  illness.