Text Readings:

Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health, Chapters 4 & 5

Web Resources:

Descriptive & Analytic Epidemiology

Epidemiological Data Sources

National Cancer Institute Data Sources

Injury Databases & Published Statistics

Learning Objectives:

At the completion of the class students will be able to:

1. Describe the major sources of health data on the U.S. population.
2. Describe the issues involved in appropriately interpreting data sources.
3. Be able to define the term descriptive epidemiology.
4. Describe and provide examples of the three main elements of descriptive epidemiology: person, place and time.
5. Define the terms disease cluster and epidemic.
6. Discuss the scientific and administrative uses of descriptive epidemiology.
7. Describe the demographic characteristics of the U.S. population and its pattern of mortality by age.
8. List the strengths and limitations of mortality data.
9. Discuss the descriptive epidemiology of childhood lead poisoning, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and breast cancer.

Assignment for Session Eight:

Answer all of the questions posed in the learning objectives and Complete exercises found in Essentials of Epidemiology in Public Health found at the end of Chapter 5.