Epidemiology

Contemporary epidemiology is a broad discipline that investigates the distribution of health and illness in populations and factors affecting these conditions. Distributions can be defined as a range of observable or latent measures of how a specific health or illness condition is spread or contained; relevant factors include both etiological factors and confounding factors that mask the true etiology. In modern epidemiology, surveillance and prevention of diseases are also considered applications of epidemiology. Health and illness encompass a wide range of clinically defined diseases and injuries, various types of health-related problems, and even normal behaviors. Because epidemiology often serves as a foundation for providing the evidence base and logic for both treatment and preventive intervention, epidemiology is considered an integral part of medicine, psychology, and ...