Reference no: EM131732512
Discussion
The risk is defined in epidemiology as the probability of an outcome mainly adverse outcome within a specific time frame. Most importantly, the term implies to quantifiable concepts in epidemiology.
Population risk is another way for determining which risk factors are particularly important and can inform those who must prioritize the deployment of health care resources.
To estimate population risk, it is important to know the frequency with which members of a community are exposed to a risk factor (Fletcher,2014).
An example is a risk of contracting heart disease. Like any other field, it is very paramount to study risk in the area of medicine and public health. The area at a time is faced with a variety of choices to make. Hence, a quantitative estimate of an individual risk is paramount when making and implementing decisions on interventions in public health and medicine.
Epidemiology has a variety of studies aimed at helping different intervention programs to reduce risk in public health and medicine. It has a descriptive study which focuses on the disease distributions and its determinants within a specified group of individual.
This study aids other interventions programs to making suggestions on significant risk for particular disease and its protective factors (Twisk, 2013).
Epidemiology helps to build the evidence based medicine in health promotion. Epidemiology contributes to the evaluation of the practice evidence based medicine (Milos, 1997).
The second study is an experimental study which helps other intervention programs in determining the individual who risks being exposed to certain conditions.
The last one is an analytical study which has branches such as ecological studies and many others. It helps in testing the hypothesis during studies to reduce risk. The results from these epidemiological studies are used in medicine for treatment (Twisk, 2013).
Reference
Fletcher, R. H., Fletcher, S. W., & Fletcher, G. S. (2014). Clinical epidemiology: the essentials (5th ed.). Philadelphia: PA. Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Milos, J. (1997). Epidemiology, evidence-based medicine, and evidence-based public health. Journal of Epidemiology, Issue 4(7).
Twisk, J. W. (2013). Applied longitudinal data analysis for epidemiology: a practical guide. Cambridge University Press.