Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Descriptive Studies
Dr Anjali N Shete
GMCH Aurangabad
Study Design Sequence
Hypothesis formation
Descriptive
Case reports Case series
epidemiology
Clinical
Hypothesis testing
trials
Investigate it’s
Disease/Exposure
Test link
Clinical trials experimentally
Introduction
• Where is it occurring?
Place distribution
• Time distribution
– When is the disease occurring?
• Place distribution
– Where is it occurring?
• Person distribution
– Who is getting the disease?
Time Place Person
Year, Season Climatic zones Age Birth Order
Month, Week Country, region Sex Family size
Day, Hour of onset Urban/Rural Marital state Height
Duration Local Community Occupation Weight
Towns Social status Blood Pressure
Cities Education Blood Cholesterol
Institutions Personal Habits
Time distribution
• The disease pattern may be described by its time of
occurrence ie. By week, month, year, day of week, hour
of onset etc.
A. Common-source epidemics
A. Single exposure or ‘point- source’ epidemics
B. Continuous or multiple exposure epidemics
B. Propagated epidemics
A. Person to person
B. Arthropod vector
C. Animal reservoir
• Seasonal trend
Eg. Measles, Varicella, Cerebro-spinal meningitis,
Upper respiratory infections, malaria etc.
• Cyclic trend
Measles, Influenza pandemics, Automobile accidents
Long term or secular trends
• International Variations
• National Variations
• Rural- urban variations
• Local distributions
International Variation
• Endemic goitre
• Lathyrism
• Fluorosis
• Leprosy
• Malaria
• Nutritional deficiency
Rural-urban variation
• Age • Occupation
• Sex • Social Class
• Ethnicity • Behavior
• Marital Status • Stress
• Migration
4. Measurement of disease
Measurement of disease
– Disability
5. Comparing with known indices
Comparing with known indices
• The population
• The dose-relationship