What Is Epidemiology?

Live Science

Epidemiology is a tool, in many ways, to understand the distribution of disease in populations, and the factors that lead to higher or lower rates of disease and ways of effectively preventing disease.

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00:00Epidemiology is the study of the emergence, distribution, and control of disease, disability,

00:07and death among groups of people.

00:09It's a field that combines elements of biology, clinical medicine, sociology, mathematics,

00:15and ecology to identify and understand health patterns and improve human health across the

00:20globe.

00:22Epidemiologists are doctors and scientists who work to understand the source of disease

00:25and other negative health effects.

00:27They estimate how many people are exposed and how the disease spreads.

00:33Epidemiologists are generally associated with infectious diseases and outbreaks, such as

00:36the COVID-19 pandemic, but they also study non-infectious health problems like the prevalence

00:42of lung cancer from smoking or communities' increase in homicide rates.

00:47The epidemiologic triangle is a tool epidemiologists use for explaining the connection between

00:53the cause of a disease and the conditions that allow it to spread.

00:58The triangle's three corners represent the who, what, and where of a disease.

01:03Who is the host or person or people who has the disease?

01:08What is the agent or cause of the disease?

01:11And where or in what environment does the disease occur?

01:15The goal of an epidemiologist is to figure out how to sever at least one link between

01:20the corners of that triangle.

01:23Breaking the connection between host, agent, and environment stops the disease in its tracks.

01:29In early March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologists from Imperial College London

01:35released a model showing the potential impacts of the disease if certain prevention methods

01:41were implemented or not.

01:43The scientists recommended large-scale social distancing to slow the spread of the virus

01:48and prevent millions of people from dying, thus severing the connection between the where

01:53and the who.

01:55The team's recommendations became public policy in many parts of the world and will result

02:00in fewer cases of the disease than expected had the triangle remained intact.

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