What Epidemiology Is: Counting Disease, Finding Its Causes

What Epidemiology Is: Counting Disease, Finding Its Causes is Lesson 0 of 20 in Principles of Epidemiology. Epidemiology asks two questions about every disease: who gets it, and why. This first lesson of a twenty-lecture course defines the field, separates describing from comparing, and introduces the fictional district every example will use. This course is taught by Angel Reyes, MPH, MCHES, PMP, PMI-ACP, a doctoral candidate in public health who earned an MPH from a CEPH-accredited program, has planned, managed, and evaluated public health programs, and builds research training for graduate students and practitioners at Subthesis. Part of the 20-lesson course Principles of Epidemiology. Five key facts from this lesson: 1. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health states in populations, and the application of that study to control health problems. 2. Distribution is the descriptive half (who, where, when); determinants is the analytic half (why and how). 3. Descriptive questions describe one group by person, place and time; analytic questions compare groups to test a hypothesis. 4. The epidemiologic approach runs count, describe, compare, explain, act, and the course follows that order: measures before methods. 5. Every example uses Oakhaven Health District, a fictional district of 100,000 residents, so you learn the method rather than memorize data. Free research tools at https://www.subthesis.com, including the Research Question Builder and the Statistical Power Calculator. Companion courses on this channel: Certified in Public Health: The CPH Exam Pathway, and Foundations of Program Planning. Examples are fictional and all figures are invented for teaching. Oakhaven Health District does not exist. This course is independent educational content from Subthesis and is not clinical, diagnostic, screening, or policy guidance.