Epidemiology and Its Role in Public Health Essay

Nowadays, epidemiology is crucial for public health, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. It suggests that this discipline has a pivotal role in studying diseases and their prevention, as mentioned in the to-be-responded post. Therefore, epidemiology helps to identify factors that impact health in different groups of patients, which makes it a highly applicable discipline in public health.

Although epidemiology has a long history, its robust development occurred in the 20^th century. Only in 1978 did scholars decide to give epidemiology a clear definition that would be suitable for all kinds of diseases and populations (Frérot et al., 2018). Nevertheless, the definition has encountered numerous alterations beginning from that year. Interestingly to note, in 1978, epidemiology was understood as the study of “the prevalence and dynamics” of health stages in various populations, which points out a more generalized meaning of the discipline (Frérot et al., 2018, p. 5). With the pace of time, even more peculiarities of epidemiology were considered, and the focus spectrum of the definition broadened to determinants of conditions and events related to health and disease control (Frérot et al., 2018). Thus, the modern definition is more comprehensive and considers the complexity of human health.

Currently, epidemiology is widely used to change clinical practices aimed at improving life quality in different populations, as the to-be-responded post indicated. One of the vulnerable groups is the elderly, whose health is often affected by various diseases. With the help of epidemiology studies, Newman et al. (2020) managed to determine new risk factors and the role of biological aging in older adults and its effect on life span. It not only contributed to the development of outcome measures of health but also provided an impetus for the identification of targets for future interventions and clinical trials (Newman et al., 2020). Thus, epidemiology strives to improve the quality of life in such populations as the elderly.

To conclude, epidemiology is a critical discipline that allows for controlling public health. Although this discipline is relatively old, its definitions develop and take into account more aspects of human health. In addition, epidemiology helps to study and address health conditions and associated risks more comprehensively.

References

Frérot, M., Lefebvre, A., Aho, S., Callier, P., Astruc, K., Glélé, L. S. A. (2018). What is epidemiology? Changing definitions of epidemiology 1978-2017. PLOS One, 13(12), pp. 1-27. Web.

Newman, A. B., Kritchevsky, S. B., Guralnik, J. M., Cummings, S. R., Salive, M., Kuchel, G. A., Schrack, J., Morris, M. C., Weir, D., Baccarelli, A., Murabito, J. M., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Espeland, M. A., Kirkland, J., Melzer, D., Ferrucci, L. (2020). Accelerating the search for interventions aimed at expanding the health span in humans: the role of epidemiology.The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 75(1), pp. 77-86. Web.