Epidemiology (BHS210-Mod5 Case)
Module 5 - Case ANALYTIC EPIDEMIOLOGY You are a Health Officer for a rural county health department and have been assigned to study the frequency of an infectious disease such as tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS. Write a 2- to 3-page essay in which you do the following: Describe observational and experimental epidemiology as the two (2) study designs apply to either of the diseases you have chosen. Be sure to identify differences between these two types of analytic epidemiology. Under what conditions will you conduct a case-control study as opposed to a cohort study? Be sure to support your opinion with evidence from the literature. ANALYTIC EPIDEMIOLOGY Required Reading Analytic Study Design (n.d.). Retrieved on 10/1/13 from http://www(dot)epidemiolog(dot)net/evolving/AnalyticStudyDesigns.pdf Optional Reading Aschengrau A, Seage GR (2003). Chapter 6: Overview of Epidemiologic Study Designs. Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health, Boston: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved on 10/1/13 from http://publichealth(dot)jbpub(dot)com/aschengrau/Aschengrau06.pdf Cosio G (2005). Epidemiological Overview of Tuberculosis [Presentation]. Retrieved on 10/1/13 from www(dot)paho(dot)org/cdmedia/dpccd01/Presentations/Day1/EPIDEMIOLOGICAL%20OVERVIEW%20OF%20TUBERCULOSIS%202.ppt
EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Epidemiology
Working in a remote village, where there is a high prevalence in the number of patients with HIV there are a number of researches that can be conducted to reduce the infection rates to the minimum (Song & Chung, 2010). Depending on the research question, the research can take the observational form or the experimental form.
Observational and Experimental Designs
With reference to observational studies that can be carried out in the village on HIV, patients experience side effects with respect to using a certain drug. Most of the drugs tend to have some form of side effects that may come within a short while or may take quite some time. In this study, 300 participants will be selected from different age groups, ranging from 20 to 50 years. There will be three subsets, where the age groups will be distributed within 10 years of each other. This distribution will ensure that the patients are observed across the age divide to establish if there is a chance that there may be differences in side effects with respect to age. Observed over a period of two years, the patients will be monitored for any changes in the health alongside the drug that they are taking for HIV (Ciphi.ca, 2014).
In the same village, it is also possible to conduct an experimental study with reference to the HIV patients and the respective treatment that they receive. As such, using the same age groups, different sets of drugs can be introduced in the population. The control groups that would be composed in the same way as the experimental one would be given the conventional drugs of treating HIV. The test group on the other hand would be given the experimental drugs. The results would then be compared after a period of two years, to establish the differences notable. This would help in the development of new drugs in coping with the HIV scourge.
Cohort and Case Control Designs
Most of the medical researches that are conducted to establish risk factors that have increased the chances of an outbreak use the cohort or the case control research designs. These help the researchers to establish the main reason as to why part of the population is suffering from the disease while the other is healthy (Ciphi.ca, 2014). At the same time, preventive measures can be established using the results of the two as they bring out the baseline of the two treatments and aspects increasing the risk prevalence (Song & Chung, 2010).
In the case-control studies, the participants are enrolled on the basis of whether they have had the infection or not. The former group makes the cases while the latter makes up the control groups subjects. The two groups are related by the ris...