Epidemiology deals with the calculation and interpretation of various health determinants and distributions. These findings help in the assessment, prevention, and control of various diseases and health problems. Epidemiologists consider the community or population as their patients. The most common methods used in this field of study are surveillance, descriptive studies, and analytic studies (World Health Organization, n.d.; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Some of the terms used in epidemiology is risk which can be measured using calculations for absolute risk, relative risk, attributable risk, and odds ratio (Moulton, 2011).
Risk can be defined as the chance or probability that a particular event will take place. In a health care setting, it is considered as the probability that an individual will develop or die due to a particular illness. As mentioned earlier, risk can be calculated and interpreted using absolute risk, relative risk, attributable risk and odds ratio. Absolute risk can also be termed as incidence rate. It measures the frequency that a particular event occurs in a specific period of time. On the other hand, relative risk computes for the ratio or comparison of health related incidence rates. Attributable risk deals with the proportion of the occurrences that can be associated or attributed to the chosen exposure. Lastly, odds ratio usually measures and compares exposure and health outcome (Moulton, 2011).
Based on the information provided by the National Cancer Institute, when a woman has one first-degree relative with breast cancer, the woman’s risk of developing breast cancer compared to woman with no first-degree relative with breast cancer will double. Thus, the risk of developing breast cancer for the above mentioned scenario will be doubled leading to 26.4%. However, when a woman has two first-degree relative with breast cancer compared to a woman with no first-degree relative with breast cancer, the risk for acquiring the disease will increase five times giving that woman a 66% risk. For the relative risk, woman with two-first degree relatives with breast cancer will 2.5 times more likely to die of breast cancer than woman who only have one first-degree relative with the disease. On the other hand, the attributable risk of a woman can be obtained by computing for the attributable risk for the population and attributable risk for the exposed. Based on the data provided, the attributable risk cannot be computed because the incidence rate for the population has not been provided. However, approximations and inferences can be done by analyzing the information presented. Since the incidence rate of cancer for women with two first-degree relatives affected with breast cancer is higher than the incidence rate of cancer for women with only one first-degree relative, it is safe to say that the risk of exposure or having two first-degree relatives with breast cancer can be attributed to a greater chance or likelihood of developing or acquiring the disease.
These measures are important especially when it comes to determining and analyzing the relationship of the exposure and the disease. By doing this, the risk assessment of human health as well as risk management can be done effectively and efficiently. The computation of risk, incidence rate, relative risk, and attributable risk provides a clear picture of the current situation when it comes to dealing with a particular disease. These measurements will then be used by various health institutions and organizations in designing and providing different projects and programs which aim to control the disease and prevent further transmission. If the values for these measures have not been computed correctly, the projects and programs may not be effective since there is a high possibility that the target population for that particular project and program is also incorrect. Thus, it is important to be able to accurately compute for these epidemiologic terms to be able to provide health programs and projects targeting the appropriate population (Broadbent, 2011).
References
Broadbent, A. (2011). Epidemiology, risk and causation: Conceptual and methodological issues in public health science. Cambridge, UK: PHG Foundation.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). What is Epidemiology?. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/excite/epidemiology.html [Accessed on 3 Mar 2016].
Moulton, G. (2011). Basic Statistics for Epidemiology: Risk. Health and Public Health Knowledgeblog. Retrieved from http://health.knowledgeblog.org/2011/07/22/basic-statistics-for-epidemiology-risk/ [Accessed on 3 Mar 2016].
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Epidemiology. World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/epidemiology/en/ [Accessed on 3 Mar 2016].
