What is descriptive epidemiology?
The who, what, where, and when of epidemiology. Descriptive epidemiology allows the better understanding of the nature and exent of the health problem (Merrill, 2013). Moreover, only through descriptive epidemiology techniques, can the necessary data required for analytical epidemiology be obtained. Descriptive epidemiology focuses on observation and surveillance, that may not only provide casual insights as to the cause of disease but also may identify sudden or unexpected outbreaks of disease within a population (Merrill, 2013). Descriptive epidemiology can provide useful information about a disease including:
- Provide important clues as to whether a physical, chemical, biological or psychosocial factor is contributing to the problem
- Provide useful information about helath-realted states or events
- Provide insight into the prevalence of new diseases or adverse health effects
- Identifies the extent of public health problems
- Provides a description of public health problems that which can be easily communicated to the public, identifying those at risk
- Provides useful information about resource planning allocation
- Identifies areas for future research
- Provides data according to person, place and time factors
- Provides public health surveillance through the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data
- Provides opportunity for change towards predictable occurrences or unexpected events
- Provides valuable information towards the effectiveness of public health interventions (Merrill, 2013)
- Provide important clues as to whether a physical, chemical, biological or psychosocial factor is contributing to the problem
- Provide useful information about helath-realted states or events
- Provide insight into the prevalence of new diseases or adverse health effects
- Identifies the extent of public health problems
- Provides a description of public health problems that which can be easily communicated to the public, identifying those at risk
- Provides useful information about resource planning allocation
- Identifies areas for future research
- Provides data according to person, place and time factors
- Provides public health surveillance through the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data
- Provides opportunity for change towards predictable occurrences or unexpected events
- Provides valuable information towards the effectiveness of public health interventions (Merrill, 2013)