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Statistical Measures

Using Statistical Measures

HOW DO WE USE STATISTICAL MEASURES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY? Family

  • Statistics are used to summarize the data collected through disease surveillance or an outbreak investigation, so we can learn from the data. Calculating statistics helps us to:
    • describe risk
    • make comparisons among communities and smaller definable groups
    • identify high-risk groups
    • develop hypotheses about the cause(s) of disease
  • Why do we need to describe and compare risk?
    • Differences in risk among different populations can provide clues for investigation of what caused one group to have a higher risk.
    • If causes can be identified, then perhaps prevention and control measures can be identified too.
  • The most common statistical measures used in field epidemiology are Abacus“frequency measures,” which are simply ways of counting cases and comparing their characteristics. In contrast with statistics used in epidemiological research, frequency measures are relatively easy to calculate and use.