Descriptive Epidemiology: Future Considerations

Topic 1: Descriptive epidemiology offers clinicians a look at the bigger picture of how disease manifests because it creates a way of arranging and assessing data in order to understand variations in disease frequency geographically and over time, and how disease (or health) varies among people based on a host of personal characteristics (person, place, and time) (bu.edu). As a result of these methods, it provides clinicians with the ability to spot patterns within health and disease, empowering them to engage in planning resources for populations and communities. Descriptive epidemiology is also important in developing hypotheses about the main factors of certain health conditions and disease. This is important because it means that descriptive epidemiology offers a starting point for analytic epidemiology, which officially investigates the connections between possible determinants and certain health or disease outcomes. There are numerous jobs that descriptive epidemiology can complete, such as observing and recording the health status and general health habits in communities; pinpointing developing health issues; making the public aware of certain threats within bioterrorism; asserting the main public health priorities for a general population; assessing the overall success of intervention programs, and determining the possible connections between risk factors and health outcomes so that a deeper understanding of the causes and factors of disease can be generated (bu.edu).

In my practice, descriptive epidemiology can definitely be used to improve care as it can shed light on health behaviors that are localized to a certain population or group within the community. It can help to illuminate habits that impact health and help clinicians like me to help spot arenas that need to be changed. For example, if many of the men in a certain community all of a sudden start suffering from tooth decay, it would be important to look at their eating and drinking habits. They might all be imbibing in the same high-acid and sugary drinks at a local store or bar during or after work.

Topic 2: An epidemiological study design that I would select in order to determine the effectiveness of an interventions within this population, would simply be an observational study. Within observational studies, the researcher observes and systematically collects information, but does not try to change the people (or animals, or reagents) being observed (uottowa.ca). This would occur without attempting to intervene on the subjects in any way. The selected population would be low-income men over the age of 30 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of east Los Angeles. The study would join a group of the men to study their lifestyle and to determine the habits they had that were...

…prevent the patient from attempting to lose the weight and become healthier, as one might feel as though one is living out ones fate and that the greater creator determined that one should be overweight, and that is the whole point of his/her destiny in this lifetime. This would definitely be a marked challenge for the healthcare provider, as it would mean he or she would have to figure out how to respect the individuals religion, yet still help to make suggestions that can cause a higher level of change in this persons life. For example, it might be useful to say that no human can fully understand Gods plan and that perhaps the creator intended for one to be born overweight so that one can deal with the challenge of losing the weight. Religious and cultural beliefs can interfere with being healthy an engaging in proactive efforts to make meaningful change in ones overall health practice.

Making suggestions and highlighting the importance of health for the strength of the individual and their family is how I would address the health literacy barrier. Currently, the main protocol for establishing practice changes in my institution, is only reasonably effective. It needs to better confront some of the cultural barriers that prevent change from occurring and attempt to work around those challenges…