Medical Degree Program in China - Epidemiology

Epidemiology is a discipline studying the distribution of disease and health status among a specific population and the determinants, and also studying the strategies and measures for the prevention and treatment of disease and health promotion. It is an important part of preventive medicine, and it is the foundation of preventive medicine.

Epidemiology develops in the process of people’s fight against serious diseases which are harmful to human health. In the early years, infectious diseases in the crowd are widely popular, which has brought great disaster to human beings. People carry a thorough epidemiological investigation on infectious diseases and take preventive measures. With the major infectious diseases being controlled, epidemiology is applied in the study of non infectious diseases, especially chronic diseases, such as heart, brain blood vessel disease, malignant tumor, diabetes and injury, disability; in addition, epidemiology is also applied in the research of promoting human health.

 

 

The research scope of epidemiology not only covers the concrete measures to prevent and control diseases, but also should study the countermeasures to prevent and control the disease, harm, promote and protect human health. The research object is the crowd, including various types of patients and healthy people. The main research method is to make investigations in the crowd; the task is to explore etiology, clarify the distribution and preventive measures, and to evaluate its effect, to achieve the prevention, disease control and eradication; at the same time, tasks of epidemiology also include disease prevention, health promotion. Based on disease and health status and its influencing factors in the study population, epidemiology aims at preventing the disease in the crowd, promoting people's health, so as to realize human longevity.

 

 

(1). Disease Distribution and the Causes

Study the incidence, prevalence and mortality of a disease in different regions, different time and different population. Due to the different time, area, number of patients of certain disease, suggests that the different distribution of disease factors, to further look for the reasons for the reason of distribution.

(2) Study the Epidemic Factors and Causes of Diseases

The causes and epidemic factors of many kinds of diseases are still unknown; the epidemiology should explore the cause of the factors and the prevalence of factors.

(3) Natural History of the Disease

The whole process of the disease from occurring, development to the end of can be divided into the stage before symptoms appearing, clinical symptoms and signs appearing stage and disease outcomes (such as the cure, improvement, deterioration and death, etc.). The natural history of different diseases is different; some diseases have relatively short natural history, such as acute bacterial infectious diseases, general progress faster, if not given positive and effective treatment, often resulting in adverse consequences, which can be serious complications and even death. And the natural history of some diseases is longer, such as atherosclerosis caused by coronary heart disease. The study of the natural history of the disease is of great significance to the study and evaluation of prognosis.

(4) Prediction of Disease Prevalence 

According to the study of the population, the risk can be estimated that a certain factor causes a person to suffer from a disease, as well as the probability of not suffering from a disease.

(5) Working out Preventive Strategies and Measures

Strategies or measures are adopted to reduce the occurrence of a patient, or to control or eliminate a disease in an area economically and control the disease quickly.

 

 

"Research" methods include monitoring, observation, hypothesis testing, analytic study and testing.

 

 

The main applications of epidemiology can be summarized in the following aspects:

Etiological Study

Disease Prevention and Control

(1). Epidemiological surveillance: epidemiological surveillance on the occurrence, development and distribution rules of public health events, like infectious diseases, endemic disease, parasitic disease, chronic non communicable diseases, occupational diseases, diseases caused by environmental pollution, food borne diseases, the elderly common disease, mental illness, injury, poisoning and so on, and puts forward prevention and control measures.

(2). Emergency handling: epidemiology principles should be followed when dealing with major outbreaks, public health emergencies. Use epidemiological investigation to trace causes quickly and accurately, and control, which will make harm reduced to a minimum.

(3) Vaccine research: conducting clinical test of four phases strictly to the vaccine, according to the principle of epidemiology to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine, and the implementation of the immunization strategy for technical guidance and evaluation.

(4). Epidemiological investigation: collect, analyze and predict the prevention and control of disease and related information, and provide a scientific basis for disease prevention and control. Organize and implement special survey of epidemiology on national major diseases and public health, to provide scientific basis for determining public health strategy.

 

 

Influenza

Hypertension

Epidemiology of gonorrhea

Epidemiology of environment

 

 

Courses of epidemiology include the basic concepts, basic knowledge and basic theory of epidemiology, application of epidemiology in the prevention and cure of diseases, mainly involving current infectious diseases and chronic non infectious diseases that have larger harm to human health, such as cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumor, respiratory system infectious diseases, digestive system infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS and damage.