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Descriptive vs. Analytic Epidemiology
•Descriptive
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•Who, where, when
•
•Illustrates potential associations
•Analytic
•
•Why
•
•Evaluates the causality of associations
Both are important!
Speaking Points

•In review, descriptive epidemiology provides information regarding the “who, where, and when” of disease occurrence, analytic epidemiology is concerned with determining why disease occurs

•Both descriptive and analytic epidemiology are important when modeling disease. Descriptive epidemiology can help bring to light potential associations between exposures and outcomes, and analytic epidemiology is used to determine if these relationships are likely to be causal.

•For example, descriptive epidemiology may reveal the association that people who carry matches in their pockets are more likely to get lung cancer than people who do not carry matches. However, analytic epidemiology would clarify that this relationship is not causal, but rather explained by the fact that people who carry matches are more likely to smoke cigarettes than people who do not carry matches, and that the causal relationship is between smoking and lung cancer.