Epidemiology: Summary And Analysis

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¬ Before commencing this topic, describe what you thought epidemiology was. This may be drawing on your own experience, or what you have heard from others.
Prior to beginning this topic, I had already taken the HLTH1305 and HLTH1306 topics, where epidemiology formed a large part of the course. Hence, my knowledge of epidemiology was that it was the study of disease and health, specifically in relation to it’s distribution, patterns, and determinants. These could include the prevalence and incidence of a disease, statistics (data-driven and descriptive), the basic science of public health, and the frequency of health events in a population.
¬ Describe what previous experience you have had with health statistics (this may be none, a little, …show more content…

How did their explanation of epidemiology confirm or contrast with your previously held ideas?
The explanation of epidemiology provided in the chapter confirmed the ideas I previously held. This is because they consolidated, through their examples, that epidemiology is in actual fact “the study of the distribution and determinants of disease” (Webb & Bain, 2011, p. …show more content…

Moreover, the reading revealed to me that epidemiology consists of multiple sub-disciplines, rather than being an all encompassing field. For example, health epidemiology, which appears to be the focus of the majority of my studies, is the broadest field of application of epidemiology, whilst more specific fields such as social epidemiology is exposure-oriented. In addition, branches of epidemiology like clinical epidemiology focus on benefiting individual patients, rather than improving a health population. This contrasts with what I believed epidemiology to be, as I held the notion that epidemiology was majorly focused on the aspects of disease/ health problems that impact large groups, rather than an individual (Webb & Bain, 2011).

¬ Drawing on the lecture and two readings, three key points I could raise in the tutorial this week are:
1. Despite your geographical location, poorer people will have poorer health (Week 2 Lecture,

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