Lesson 1: Introduction to Epidemiology

Overview

Recently, a news story described an inner-city neighborhood's concern about the rise in the number of children with asthma. Another story reported the revised recommendations for who should receive influenza vaccine this year. A third story discussed the extensive disease-monitoring strategies being implemented in a city recently affected by a massive hurricane. A fourth story described a finding published in a leading medical journal of an association in workers exposed to a particular chemical and an increased risk of cancer. Each of these news stories included interviews with public health officials or researchers who called themselves epidemiologists. Well, who are these epidemiologists, and what do they do? What is epidemiology? This lesson is intended to answer those questions by describing what epidemiology is, how it has evolved and how it is used today, and what some of the key methods and concepts are. The focus is on epidemiology in public health practice, that is, the kind of epidemiology that is done at health departments.

Objectives

Major Sections