Descriptive epidemiology is branch of public health. It collect all the data regarding any disease condition. This data is primarily present in the form of Time, place and person. That is why this is called as descriptive study, it describes disease in Time, place and person.
So, basically it is form of data collection method and research way in which we collect all the information regarding a particular disease.
Data we collect from descriptive epidemiology are,
- Who is affected (persons.)
- Where is the disease condition present (geography)
- When it occur as time, year, months, seasons
This data is leads to form the hypothesis. It means, it establish the relationships between the two variable as cause and effect relationship. This are term as hypothesis means it was not proven till now. It then prove later in the analytical epidemiological study.
Core components of Descriptive Epidemiology
There are three components of descriptive epidemiology,
Time (When)
Time includes when disease occurs and at what specific time it occurs. It is as in which season summer, winter, rainy season, in which season the disease is mostly occuring.
So, it explains the trend of disease over a long period of time. Weather it is a seasonal disease, chronic disease, epidemic, pandemic or local disease. It also identified the favorable time for bacteria to grow and cause disease.
Ex. In rainy seasons, dengue and malaria disease are increased in specific diseases.
Place (Where)
It check what is the most common place for a disease to develop. Ex. Malaria is most commonly found in the african region, because the environment is favorable to growth of the female anaphalous mosquito that cause the malaria.
It also check weather it occur in what rural area, urban area or localized disease.
Person (Who)
Person is the one to whom the disease occur. It includes the characteristics of the person such as age, gender, education, occupation, cultural, social bakground of the person.
Examples are some diseases are most common in people at 25 to 30 years of age with having habit of smoking and alcohol consumption.
Importance of Descriptive Epidemiology
Descriptive epidemiology is important for,
- To identify the trend of disease, either growing declining or stable
- To check for outbreaks in community
- To help plan health intervention based on data collected
- To form hypothesis
- To understand disease thoroughly