Describe how epidemiological data influences changes in health practices. Provide an example and explain what data would be necessary to make a change in practice.
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From the information provided in the question above, we can conduct a research and solve the given problem as follows.
To begin with, epidemiology is a scientific discipline which deals with various methods of determining the various causes of diseases and their outcomes in a given population. It involves investigation of all factors that determine presence of diseases and disorders.
The researchers including the epidemiologists use experimental, descriptive and analytical methods of research to study the causes of an illness plus the premature deaths.
The public health problems or events investigated include; non-infectious disease, injuries, infectious diseases, natural disasters, environmental exposures and terrorism.
Epidemiology is important is the following ways;
It is used in investigating the endangered population due to poor health.
Helps in the determination of treatment measures, screening and health education effectiveness.
It also assists in tracing the origin and history of a disease.
The essentiality of epidemiology is mainly explored in the field of health, whereby the health nurses use it to describe a population’s health status and the factors that are already in place and need to be introduced in order to reduce the risks of a specific health condition. In addition, it help access the effects of nurses intervention in a population.
Basically, the environment and the population, that is, the hosts of a disease, determines the natural history of a disease since they posses chemical, biological and physical modifications which might either favor or not favor a disease.
Therefore, epidemiology helps in planning for programs and services to be put in place since it monitors the trend of a disese.
The following are the approaches used by the epidemiologists to identify the causes of a disease.
The use of epidemiological tool for data collection
Reference from an already documented source to determine if there is a relationship between a factor and the development of a disease.
Example
In October 1995 the Medicine Control Agency of the United Kingdom announced that new epidemiological data indicated that users of certain brands of combined oral contraceptives might have a higher risk of venous thromboembolism than women using other types of combined contraceptive pill. At the same time, tentative evidence was emerging that the contraceptive pills associated with an increased risk of venous thrombosis might have a lower risk of myocardial infarction.