Unit 2: Measuring Health and Disease

Introduction

To determine whether a particular disease or health event is a Public Health problem, it is important to be able to measure its distribution in the population. Public Health workers also need a way to effectively monitor the spread or containment of such conditions, and to know whether their intervention is improving the health of the community or not.

This unit explores the use of rates, indicators and other vital statistics in epidemiology, together with a brief introduction to some of the demographic influences that provide a basis for their measurement. Existing sources of epidemiological data are explored to assess their accessibility, reliability and relevance. The unit concludes by looking at effective ways to report epidemiological information.

There are five Study Sessions in Unit 2:

Study Session 1: Epidemiological Principles and Practice.

Study Session 2: Describing a Population.

Study Session 3: The Source and Quality of Epidemiological Information.

Study Session 4: Infectious Diseases and Outbreaks.

Study Session 5: Develop Critical Questions For Your Dataset. 

Intended Learning Outcomes

Assignments

The final session of this unit gets you started on Assignment 2, your epidemiological report on the dataset.