Abstract
Both descriptive and analytical epidemiology are important for advancing clinical medicine and public health. Descriptive epidemiology assesses the burden and magnitude of health problems in a population, whereas analytical epidemiology identifies the causes and risk factors of health problems. This chapter provides the scopes, designs, data analytics approaches, ethical issues, and examples of various epidemiological studies. Descriptive epidemiological studies include: (1) case reports, (2) case series, (3) descriptive cross-sectional (prevalence) studies, and (4) descriptive cohort (incidence) studies. Analytical epidemiological studies include: (a) observational studies, such as (1) ecological studies (correlational studies), (2) analytical cross-sectional studies, (3) analytical cohort studies (prospective and retrospective), and (4) case–control studies, and (b) experimental studies, such as (1) community-based interventions and (2) clinical trials.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
U.S. Census Bureau. Measuring racial and ethnic diversity in the 2020 census. 2021. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sickle cell disease. 2022. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html
Garnett E, Townsend J, Steele B, Watson M. Characteristics, rates, and trends of melanoma incidence among Hispanics in the USA. Cancer Causes Control. 2016;27:647–59.
Oraka E, Iqbal S, Flanders WD, Brinker K, Garbe P. Racial and ethnic disparities in current asthma and emergency department visits: Findings from the National Health Interview Survey, 2001–2010. J Asthma. 2013;50(5):488–96.
Hamner S, Tripathi A, Mishra RK, Bouskill N, Broadaway SC, Pyle BH, Ford TE. The role of water use patterns and sewage pollution in incidence of water-borne/enteric diseases along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. Int J Environ Health Res. 2006;16(2):113–32.
Gyasi SF, Boateng AA, Awuah E, Antwi EO. Elucidating the incidence and the prevalence of Schistosomiasis spp infection in riparian communities of the Bui dam. J Parasit Dis. 2019;43:276–88.
Smit LA, Hooiveld M, van der Sman-de Beer F, Opstal-van Winden AW, Beekhuizen J, Wouters IM, et al. Air pollution from livestock farms, and asthma, allergic rhinitis and COPD among neighbouring residents. Occup Environ Med. 2014;71(2):134–40.
Gupta BG, Biswas JK, Agrawal KM. Air pollution from bleaching and dyeing industries creating severe health hazards in Maheshtala textile cluster, West Bengal, India. Air Soil Water Res. 2017;10 https://doi.org/10.1177/1178622117720.
Joseph N, Propper CR, Goebel M, Henry S, Roy I, Kolok AS. Investigation of relationships between the geospatial distribution of cancer incidence and estimated pesticide use in the US West. GeoHealth. 2022;6(5):e2021GH000544.
Aggarwal R, Chiu N, Loccoh EC, Kazi DS, Yeh RW, Wadhera RK. Rural-urban disparities: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke mortality among black and white adults, 1999-2018. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2021;77(11):1480–1.
Mitra AK. Epidemiology for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2023.
Fonseca K, Meatherall B, Zarra D, Drebot M, MacDonald J, Pabbaraju K, et al. First case of Zika virus infection in a returning Canadian traveler. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014;91(5):1035. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0151.
Gutierrez Sanchez LH, Shiau H, Baker JM, Saaybi S, Buchfellner M, Britt W, et al. A case series of children with acute hepatitis and human adenovirus infection. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(7):620–30.
Lam JR, Schneider JL, Zhao W, Corley DA. Proton pump inhibitor and histamine 2 receptor antagonist use and vitamin B12 deficiency. JAMA. 2013;310(22):2435–42. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.280490.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Framingham Heart Study (FHS). n.d.. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/science/framingham-heart-study-fhs
Nurses’ Health Study. About the nurses’ health study. n.d.. https://nurseshealthstudy.org/about-nhs
National Institutes of Health. Agricultural Health Study: About. n.d.. https://aghealth.nih.gov/about/
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, et al. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(19):1477–82.
Baden LR, El Sahly HM, Essink B, Kotloff K, Frey S, Novak R, et al, for the COVE Study Group. Efficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. N Engl J Med 2021 ; 384(5), 403–416. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sapkota, K. (2024). Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology. In: Mitra, A.K. (eds) Statistical Approaches for Epidemiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41784-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41784-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-41783-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-41784-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)