 Classify epidemiological study designs. Describe in brief the time distribution of a disease.

 Describe the distribution of a disease depending personal characteristics.

 Explain in brief the procedure to carry out a descriptive epidemiological study.

 Epidemiological study design can be classified as follows:



 Epidemiological design is classified into Observation and Experimental (Intervention) studies.

Then observational studies are divided into Analytical and Descriptive studies while Experimental
studies are further divided into Clinical (Randomized controlled trials), field and community trials.
The examples of descriptive studies are cross sectional, ecological and longitudinal studies, while
that of analytical studies are case control and cohort studies.

 Descriptive Studies: Descriptive studies are observational studies, which describe the frequency

and patterns of disease occurrence in the specified population. Frequency is the number of cases of
health problems and the relationship of the cases with the size of the population whereas the
pattern of health events refers to the occurrence of the health events in terms of time (which could
be annual, seasonal, monthly weekly, daily etc.), place (geographical variation, rural urban
differences and others) and person (in terms of demographic characteristics such as age, sex,
occupation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, lifestyles as well as environment al exposure. An
example is the variation of a specified health related problem among different age groups. It is
used to generate etiologic hypothesis. Examples of descriptive studies are longitudinal, Cross-
sectional (Prevalence) and ecology studies.

 Analytical Studies: This is study that is employed to search for determinants (causative

agents/risk factors) that predispose to both infectious and non- infection disease. Epidemiologists
use analytical studies to answer the questions of ‘’WHY and HOW’’ events. Analytical studies are
used to test specific “Hypothesis”. In this study, exposure groups are compared with control
groups so as to unravel the association between exposures and outcomes. In other words, it is done
to find out if an outcome is related to the exposure. Examples of analytical studies are case control
studies and cohort studies.

 Experimental Studies: These are studies where two similar groups (exposed and control groups)
identified through randomization; one is deliberately exposed to the therapy while the control are
not and both groups are followed over time under the same conditions to determine the incidence
 rate of the outcome in both group. This is a study where the conditions are under the direct control
of the investigator to get strong evidence about the existence of a cause-effect relationship.
Example is Randomized Control trial (RCT), Field Trials and Community Trials. 

 Time distribution of disease: This refers as the distribution of diseases based on secular trends,
cyclic fluctuation (seasonality),point epidemic and clustering. Secular Trends refer to the gradual
changes in the frequency of the diseases over a long period of time. Cyclic (Seasonal) Trends are
the increase and decrease in the frequency of the diseases over a period of several years or within
a year. Many infectious diseases and chronic adverse conditions exhibit cyclical patterns during
their occurrence with annual increase and decrease. Mortality from pneumonia and influenza are
always at peaks during February, decreases during March and April and reaches its lowest level
during the early summer. A point epidemic refers to the response of a group of populations
confined to a common source of infection, contamination or other etiologic factor to which they
are exposed.

 Describe the distribution of disease depending on personal characteristics:

 Demographic information such as age, sex, occupation, socioeconomic status, lifestyles as well as
environmental exposure play a great role in the distribution of diseases. They are often the
characteristics most strongly related to exposure and to the risk of disease. Here the investigators
are interested in the following: What did these victims have in common? Where did they do their
grocery shopping? What restaurants had they gone to in the past month or so? Had they traveled?
Had they been exposed to other people who had been ill? Other characteristics will be more
specific to the disease under investigation and the setting of the outbreak. For example, if you
were investigating an outbreak of hepatitis B, the investigator will be focus on the usual high-risk
exposures for that infection, such as intravenous drug use, sexual contacts, and health care
employment.

 To carry out a descriptive study, the following steps have to be followed:

 Step 1: Defining the population to be studied and sample size: This involves knowing the
populations' characteristics (stable or nomadic).The sample size of the population be studies
should be ascertained.

 Step 2:  Identify the problem: The disease under study should be clearly defined. The criteria for
case definition should clearly spelt out to avoid confusion when the study kicks off.

 Step 3: Literature Review: This involves reviewing related peer review literatures, journals and
publication on the subject matter for sufficient knowledge. Getting this done will go a long way in
making the investigator to know the variables to be captured during the questionnaire
development.

 Step 4: Selection of study population: This involves selecting and recruiting the target population
from the larger population. This selected target population should be a representative of the
general population so as to allow for generalization of the findings at the end of the study.

 Step 5: Develop a questionnaire: Unstructured questionnaire that will capture all the needed
variables for the study should be drafted.

 Step 6: Conduct pilot study: This involves applying the drafted questionnaire to the selected
subjects. The essence of this is to enable the investigator to know which variables that should be
included or removed from the already crafted questionnaire.
 Step 7: Recruitment of the personnel for the study: The personnel that will go to the field for the
study should be recruited and trained on how to apply the questionnaire. This step is dependent on
the investigators’ jurisdiction as some researcher may choose to do it alone.

 Step 8: Data collection: This involves going to the field for data collection from the target
audience.

 Step 9: Data Analysis: At this point, all the variables captured during data collection stage are
analyzed using a prescribed analytical tool like SPSS, EPI INFO or others.

 Step 10: Result interpretation and conclusion: The outcome of the analysis are interpreted and
concluded.

 Step 11: Dissemination of findings: The outcome of the study will be disseminated either via
journal publication or through other means of communication to the public, health actors and
policy makers for decision making.

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 References:

 1. MacMahon B,Pugh TF. Epidemiology Principles and Methods. Boston,M. A: Litle,

Brown;1970

  
 Re: Forum 2 Epidemiological study designs, distribution of a disease, descriptive epidemiological
study
 by Chimaobim Betta Edu 34939 - Saturday, 18 January 2020, 12:58 PM
  
 Classify epidemiological study designs. Describe in brief the time distribution of a disease.
 Essentially there are three broad types of epidemiological study design:
 1.      Descriptive studies
 These examine the distribution of disease and possible determinants of disease in a defined
population, and can often lead to suggestions of important risk or protective factors. They aim to
identify changes in morbidity and/or mortality in time or to compare the incidence or prevalence
of disease in different geographical areas or between groups of individuals with different
characteristics. Descriptive studies generally use routinely collected health data, such as infectious
disease notifications, and are cheap and quick to carry out
  2.      Analytical or observational studies
 These are planned investigations designed to test specific hypotheses, and can be categorised into
four groups:
 • Ecological
 • Cross-sectional studies
 • Cohort studies
 • Case-control studies
  3.      Experimental or intervention studies.
 These differ from the observational techniques outlined above in that the investigators determine
who will be exposed. A key part of the experimental design consists of randomizing a single
cohort into two groups. The process of randomization attempts to ensure the same distribution of
various intra-individual traits and potential confounders between study groups so that they are as
 comparable as possible. One group is then assigned to exposure to the factor under study; the other
group is the control and the health outcomes for the groups are compared.
 Describe in brief the time distribution of a disease.
 Distribution” refers to incidence or prevalence of disorders in specified time period. Time
distribution of disease has to do with characteristics such as annual occurrence of disease,
seasonal, daily or even hourly occurrence during an epidemic.
 In summary, the issue of time should be central to all thinking in epidemiology research, which
would necessitate careful thinking about sampling, measurement, design, analysis, and, perhaps
most important, about the interpretation of the results from such studies that might influence
clinical decision-making and subsequent clinical research.
 Describe the distribution of a disease depending personal characteristics.
 Distribution of disease can be classified based on person who develops the disease. Personal
characteristics include age, sex, race, marital status, socio-economic status, behaviour and
environmental exposure
 Explain in brief the procedure to carry out a descriptive epidemiological study.
 Descriptive epidemiology is the most Basic form of epidemiology. It is concerned with the
description of the patterns of occurrence of health-related status or events in groups. The
determination of frequency and distribution of disease, incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates
are included in descriptive epidemiology.
 The aim of descriptive epidemiology is also to describe the distributions of diseases and
determinants, provides a way of organizing and analyzing these data to describe the variations in
disease frequency among populations by geographical areas and over time (i.e., person, place, and
time) as well as thus generate hypotheses of etiologic research.
 However for the purpose of this discussion, I will attempt to give a syntax or stepwise procedure
employed in descriptive epidemiology study.
 1.                  Theory
 2.                  Hypothesis
 3.                  Research design
 4.                  Devise measure of concepts
 5.                  Select research sites
 6.                  Select research subject/respondents
 7.                  Administer research instruments
 8.                  Process data
 9.                   Analyze data
 10.                Findings/conclusion
 11.                Report findings/conclusion