DNP 825 How could you use descriptive epidemiological methods in your practice?

How could you use descriptive epidemiological methods in your practice? Provide an example where you could use descriptive epidemiology to improve care. Explain your rationale.

Descriptive epidemiology aims to describe the distributions of diseases and determinants. It 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). Descriptive epidemiology can thus generate hypotheses of etiologic research.

Ecologic study and cross-sectional study (see Chapter 4) are the most commonly applied in descriptive epidemiologic studies. For example, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey is a cross-sectional study. In the study, participants’ health conditions, including the prevalence of CHD, heart failure, stroke, diabetes, and cancers, are measured through standard survey instruments.⁴¹

Descriptive epidemiology uses observational studies of the distribution of disease in terms of person, place, and time. The study describes the distribution of a set of variables, without regard to causal or other hypotheses. Personal factors include age, gender, SES, educational level, ethnicity, and occupation. The place of occurrence can be defined by natural or political boundaries, and can also include such variables as location of residence, work, school, or recreation. Time factors include time trends, which are generally divided into three types:

DNP 825 How could you use descriptive epidemiological methods in your practice

•: secular trends – long-term variations
•: cyclic changes – periodic fluctuations on an annual or other basis
•: epidemic disease outbreaks – short-term fluctuations.

Time trends contribute to our understanding of the natural history of epidemics of acute infectious diseases such as measles or waterborne disease, as well as NCDs such as stroke or cancer. The study of a “natural experiment” when a public health situation is occurring may provide valuable experience and hypothesis for further investigation. Epidemiology also examines the frequency and distribution of potential health indicators and health-related events (such as smoking).

Natural experiments allow observation of the effects of events not in the control of the observer. Increases in legal speed limits are associated with increases in the incidence and severity of traffic collisions, and deaths as velocity increases. Fluoridation of community water supplies is associated with reductions in dental caries and poor dental health of children and elderly people. The observations are consistent and show a strong association, but are denied by ideologues as “not proven”.

Laws on smoking restrictions are important in reducing this previously highly prevalent risk factor for CVD and cancer, but this cannot be demonstrated by usual epidemiological methods. Yet it was the good epidemiology that provided the strong association between smoking and these diseases which justified the legal restrictions imposed by many civil societies. Natural experiments are an important part of the evidence base for public health where in many circumstances more definitive epidemiological research methods such as RCTs are neither feasible nor ethical.

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Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource