Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of factors affect-
ing the health and illness of populations, and
serves as the foundation and logic of inter-
ventions made in the interest of public health
and preventive medicine. It is considered a
cornerstone methodology of public health re-
search, and is highly regarded in evidence-
based medicine for identifying risk factors for
disease and determining optimal treatment
approaches to clinical practice. In the study
of communicable and non-communicable dis-
eases, the work of epidemiologists ranges
from outbreak investigation to study design,
data collection and analysis including the de-
velopment of statistical models to test hypo-
theses and the documentation of results for
submission
to
peer-reviewed
journals.
Epidemiologists rely on a number of other
scientific disciplines, such as biology (to bet-
ter understand disease processes), Geograph-
ic Information Science (to store data and map
disease patterns) and social science discip-
lines including philosophy (to better under-
stand proximate and distal risk factors).
Etymology
Epidemiology, "the study of what is upon the
people", is derived from the Greek terms epi
= upon, among; demos = people, district; lo-
gos = study, word, discourse; suggesting that
it applies only to human populations. But the
term is widely used in studies of zoological
populations (veterinary epidemiology), al-
though the term ’epizoology’ is available, and
it has also been applied to studies of plant
populations (botanical epidemiology).[1]
History
The Greek physician Hippocrates is some-
times said to be the uncle of epidemiology.
He is the first person known to have ex-
amined the relationships between the occur-
rence of disease and environmental influ-
ences. He coined the terms endemic (for dis-
eases usually found in some places but not in
others) and epidemic (for disease that are
seen at some times but not others).[2]
One of the earliest theories on the origin
of disease was that it was primarily the fault
of human luxury. This w