Biostatistics and Epidemiology Class Baypath University_Week 3 Assignment

Week 3 assignment

Week 3 is about descriptive epidemiology. Proportions, ratios and rates will be discussed. NOTE: I recommend starting with the VoiceThread and then watching the example video(s).

Student Objectives for the Week:

• Define the three types of measures
• Describe measures of mortality
• Describe measures of morbidity

• Gordis Epidemiology. (6th Edition) Chapters 3 & 4
• Week 3: Lecture(Attached)
• Epidemiology: Calculating Death Rates (Links to an external site.) (2013) (length 9:09)

The vital statistics tracking is important because it provides critical data to identify the problems and issues which can guide the action and decision of the healthcare system in changing healthcare policy and implementing an intervention to improve public and national health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the agency that is responsible for the nation’s principal health statistics. NCHS collects data via the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). The data included in the NVSS are information on all births and deaths in the United States. In addition to general statistic information on birth and death rate, this data may also break down further into teen births and birth rates, cesarean delivery, preterm birth and infant mortality rates, leading causes of death, and life expectancy (“National Vital Statistics System Improvement”, 2019). This whole process of national surveillance system helps to monitor the health of the population, to identify risk factors/predisposing factors that affect the health of individuals, and to evaluate health outcomes among these populations.

When I am looking at statistical reports that are health-related, for example, statistic data of leading causes of death in the United States, my focus will be identifying the first top ranks which have the highest rate affecting an individual’s health. Before I learned about this Years of Potential Life Lost, I didn’t realize how it is important to look at the data by using YPLL in addition to cause-specific. YPLL is one of the methods to measure premature mortality or early death. Higher the number of YPLL is a greater loss of future productive years in those younger age individuals compared to death occurring at an older age (Celentano & Szklo, 2019). Some diseases or incidents may prevalence in specific age-population. Therefore, we should not just focus on the ranking, rather we should take a closer look at the data and consider YPLL when analyzing and processing the information. This will help us to understand the main cause of premature death in these young people and lead to public awareness in employing preventive measures to reduce the premature death rate.

Celentano, D. D. & Szklo, M. (2019). Gordis epidemiology (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Elsevier, Inc.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019). National Vital Statistics System Improvement. Retrieved January 22, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/factsheets/factsheet_nvss_improvements.htm