Measures of frequency, magnitude of association and impact in epidemiology

Abstract

Epidemiology is concerned with groups of subjects belonging to populations, not with each individual subject, and takes into account both the subjects who contract a disease and those who do not. Comparison, thus, is a basic element of this discipline. Measures of frequency, association and impact are the main statistical resources employed in epidemiology to describe the distribution of healthcare problems, establishing a causal relationship between exposure and disease, enabling users to evaluate the impact of preventive measures in the field of public health.