Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states and in specified populations and the application to control health problems. Classified as either descriptive or analytical, a variety of epidemiologic approaches can be used to allow assessment of hypothesized risk factor exposure with disease outcomes. This article reviews salient aspects of epidemiologic ...

A wide variety of bacterial typing systems are currently in use that vary greatly with respect to the effort required, cost, reliability and ability to discriminate between bacterial strains. No one technique is optimal for all forms of investigation. We discuss the desired level of discrimination and need for a biologic basis for grouping strains of apparently different types when using bacter...

, number 6 , December 2016 :e 20162548 The adverse effects of poverty on health have been well documented. In response, pediatric clinicians have become increasingly focused on mitigating these effects on children’s health. 1 In March 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released the first-ever policy statement on poverty, calling for pediatricians to screen and address poverty and re...

Area-based strategies have been widely employed in efforts to improve population health and take action on social determinants of health (SDH) and health inequities, including in urban areas where many of the social, economic and environmental factors converge to influence health. Increasingly, these factors are recognized as being part of a complex system, where population health outcomes are ...

Understanding the epidemiology (distribution and determinants) of urinary incontinence (UI), as well as its natural history is a very important issue. In this article, we discuss prevalence, incidence, natural history, and the variations that may be related to race and ethnicity. We focus on epidemiologic population comprising community-dwelling women who are not institutionalized. Our review c...

The ultimate goal of many epidemiologic studies is to determine the causes of disease. This is generally done first by observing a possible association between an exposure and an illness, second by developing a hypothesis about a cause and effect relationship, and third by testing the hypothesis through a formal epidemiologic study. While the formal study can strongly support the conclusion tha...

In this issue, Kachi et al have reported novel evidence on health inequalities among young Japanese children and adolescents, showing that overweight is more prevalent among children who are socioeconomically disadvantaged in terms of parental income, expenditure, occupation, and education.1 The results are not surprising, as they are similar to data from other parts of the world, but the key m...

The clinical, patient-oriented focus of medicine and psychology is contrasted with the epidemiologic (public health) approach in assessing the role of life-style factors and health promotion in cancer research. The unifying host-agent-environment epidemiologic paradigm is applied to contemporary cancer prevention issues, principally smoking cessation and dietary modification, to demonstrate dif...