Epidemiological Transition
Epidemiological transition refers to the shift in the patterns of health and disease within a population. It involves a transition from high mortality and infectious diseases to lower mortality and an increased prevalence of chronic diseases. This transition is often associated with changes in lifestyle, healthcare, and socioeconomic development within a society.
5 Key excerpts on "Epidemiological Transition"
eBook - ePub- Graham Scambler(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Ultimately our central argument is relatively simple. It is that, contrary to the classic view of national trajectories through different epidemiological phases, population health is relational, insofar as the factors that determine it are part of a world system. We aim to show this through a mixture of macro-level data on trade and mortality patterns and a few brief comments on how the ideas might apply to the region of West Africa. However, before we can bring these two theories together it is necessary to describe their main components and criticisms for those who might be less familiar with either or both of them. Epidemiological Transition theory Despite being largely overlooked when it was first proposed, Abdel Omran’s (1971) Epidemiological Transition theory (ETT) has become something of a citation classic. The original paper has been cited nearly 600 times, although most of these are from the 1990s onwards and relatively few are found in epidemiology journals (Weisz and Olszynko-Gryn 2010). In this seminal paper Omran sought to set out [a] theory of epidemiologic transition [that is] sensitive to the formulations of population theorists who have stressed the demographic, biologic, sociologic, economic and psychologic (sic) ramifications of transitional processes … Conceptually, the theory of epidemiologic transition focuses on the complex change in patterns of health and disease and on the interactions between these patterns and their demographic, economic and sociologic determinants and consequences. (Omran 1971: 510) This theory has generated a great deal of research and support from around the world. Harper and Armelagos (2010: 667) applaud it for its focus on the population as the unit of study rather than the individual. This modification represents an important change in perspective that resulted from the influence of population biology on human disease ecology...
eBook - ePub- Gregory L. Weiss(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 3 Social Epidemiology Learning Objectives • Define the term “social epidemiology,” and identify the major research techniques used by epidemiologists. • Identify and describe the five major stages of the Epidemiological Transition. Discuss the changing presence of acute infectious diseases and chronic degenerative diseases during these stages. • Explain the poor performance of the United States relative to other countries regarding life expectancy and infant mortality. • Explain the manner in which social class, race, and gender influence life expectancy, infant mortality, and morbidity in the United States. • Describe how the meaning of “disability” has changed in the United States in the last 20 years. Identify social factors that influence the likelihood of disability. The field of social epidemiology focuses on understanding the causes and distribution of diseases and impairments within a population. Early in the history of the field, epidemiologists concentrated primarily on identifying the microorganisms responsible for epidemics of acute infectious diseases. Utilizing the germ theory of disease (see Chapter 2), epidemiologists achieved much success in identifying the responsible agents. As populations became less susceptible to infectious diseases and less likely to die from them, chronic degenerative diseases such as coronary heart disease and cancer became more prominent. Gradually, the focus of epidemiology broadened to address the importance of social characteristics (including gender, race, and social class), lifestyle, and the social and physical environment (including such things as employment status, stress, exposure to toxic substances, and participation in social networks) in relation to disease and illness...
eBook - ePubApplied Epidemiologic Principles and Concepts
Clinicians' Guide to Study Design and Conduct
- Laurens Holmes, Jr.(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...This collaboration requires epidemiologists to be informed on biological processes as components of disease etiology, in order to apply the mechanism disease in mapping the etiologic pathways in morbidities and mortalities. Epidemiologic research now and in future will require team science, translational and transdisciplinary approach. Therefore, scientific creativity needed in meaningful evidence recovery requires transdisciplinary innovation, and epidemiology has the opportunity, given its very broad scope, to provide innovative designs and statistical models to the utilization of these complex biologic, biotechnologic, behavioral, and genetics data in disease etiology and intervention mapping. Box 13.1 Social epidemiology (SE) Emerged during the 1960s as a field of epidemiology that studies the relationship between social attributes or factors and disease, injuries, disabilities, and health-related events at the population level. With social factors contributing to mortality, social epidemiology has demonstrated the role of culture, social class, and education in disease initiation, progression, and prognosis. Characterized by inclusion of social, economic, and cultural exposure in the explanation of the outcome. These factors include race/ethnicity, sex/gender, socioeconomic status/class/position, education, income. Surveillance and etiologic influence are addressed in an attempt to examine social variation in disease and mortality. Data are assessed at individual as well as aggregate levels. Individual-level variables include marital status, material deprivation, social support, family support, status incongruity. Aggregate-level exposure in SE includes social network, economic inequality, social capital, and neighborhood deprivation. In environmental epidemiology, time-related disease patterns are common and include time-clustering (occurs with the introduction of new exposure in an environment that is not commonly encountered on a large scale), cyclic patterns...
eBook - ePubGeographies of Care
Space, Place and the Voluntary Sector
- Christine Milligan(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...When and why we are most likely to die is attributed to where an individual lives, variations in the way the health service operates between localities, and how governments both organise health provision and regulate society. While such studies have been largely concerned with the mapping of health related occurrences, they do, nevertheless, begin to highlight the importance of examining the influence of social and political factors as a means of understanding spatial difference in health outcomes. Other geographers (e.g. Haggett, 1972; Pyle, 1973) attempted to combine the ideas of spatial diffusion (deriving from the work of Hagerstrand, 1968) and graph theory. This was adopted in an attempt to understand the causative processes in the spread of disease, and as a means of accurately forecasting its geographical spread. Pyle (1973), in particular, used diffusion modelling not only to illustrate the age-specific attack rates of measles, but also to highlight the role of socio-economic indicators in the prevalence of the disease. The origins of the disease were found to be in the poorest location of the area studied with a clear pattern of diffusion thereafter. Additionally, however, the relatively expensive cost of the vaccine was shown to present a barrier to the diffusion of inoculation to the entire population at risk. Hence, in work of this nature, we can see medical geography beginning to go beyond diffusion and spatial patterning, to look at causation - not just in a medical sense, but also in socio-cultural terms - to explain differentials in the incidence of disease amongst populations. Ecological studies of health and disease have tended to use aggregate measures of health and risk factors for populations resident in different geographical areas. In Giggs’s (1973) work, for example, aggregate measures were used to study the distribution of Schizophrenics in Nottingham...
eBook - ePubHealth Promotion
Disciplines and Diversity
- Robin Bunton, Gordon MacDonald, Gordon Macdonald, Robin Bunton, Gordon MacDonald, Gordon Macdonald(Authors)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In so doing, however, they should beware of the existence of considerable variation in the use of common terms and the attendant scope for confusion. This semantic muddle is particularly regrettable in a discipline whose practitioners pride themselves on the ‘hardness’ of their methodologies and data. Contributions to health promotion These may be considered under headings derived from the above definition: distribution of disease and determinants of disease. Distribution of disease The study of the distribution of disease – descriptive epidemiology – is central to public health. Its relevance to health promotion lies in its being an essential first step in the prevention of ill health. Descriptive epidemiology, as the name suggests, describes aspects of the burden of disease in communities. These aspects are: the amount of given diseases, in terms of deaths occurring over a certain period of time (mortality), cases arising in a particular population over a defined time (incidence), or cases existing in a population at a point of time or over a defined time period (point and period prevalence, respectively); and the manner in which particular diseases are distributed according to characteristics of time, person, and place Much of this work may be done using routinely collected data. Mortality data relate to causes of death, and are obtained from death certificates. Morbidity data are concerned with non-fatal disease events, and are obtained from a wide range of sources, including hospital discharge returns, sickness absence certificates, infectious disease notifications, cancer registrations, general practice records, and the national General Household Survey (which collects medical, social, and other information from a random sample of the population of the United Kingdom). In many instances, however, the information required is unobtainable through routine channels, and special studies are required...
