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Relationship between acute and chronic disease epidemiology
1Dept. of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15261.
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine
|July 1, 1987
Summary
Epidemiology studies disease causes to reduce illness and death. Chronic disease epidemiology can improve by adopting methods from infectious disease epidemiology, focusing on transmission and incubation periods.
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Epidemiology investigates disease determinants to reduce morbidity and mortality.
- Studies progress from descriptive to analytical and experimental approaches.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify key differences between infectious and chronic disease epidemiology.
- To propose improvements for chronic disease epidemiology by integrating successful infectious disease methods.
Main Methods:
- Review of traditional infectious disease epidemiology approaches (agent, incubation, transmission, control).
- Analysis of chronic disease epidemiology focus on complex variables and statistical methods.
- Comparison of methodological emphasis (analytical vs. experimental) in both fields.
Main Results:
- Infectious disease epidemiology traditionally focuses on agent, incubation period, transmission, and control.
- Chronic disease epidemiology emphasizes complex interactions and statistical methods, with less focus on transmission or incubation periods.
- Chronic disease epidemiology leans more towards analytical studies than experimental ones.
Conclusions:
- Chronic disease epidemiology can benefit from adopting infectious disease methods like studying disease transmission, host susceptibility, incubation periods, and clinical trials.
- The concept of multifactorial etiology in chronic diseases may reflect current knowledge gaps rather than a definitive biological principle.