Introduction
“Epidemiology is the study of the determinants, occurrence, and distribution of health and disease in a defined population” (Brachman, 1996), and it seeks to answer the question ‘who, what, when, and where. Analytical tools in epidemiology help to describe a situation intricately giving a better grasp of its reach and relationship with contributory factors. Cancer is a fatal disease that is presently claiming several lives worldwide, and analytical epidemiology is useful in this research because it displays data that can describe the prevalence, morbidity, mortality, prevention, and other useful information. The WHO site for cancer displays various tools of epidemiological analysis, but the most helpful tool in this website is the mortality rate of cancer.
Main body
The mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths occurring in a given population and it is a unit expressed as a percentage of deaths occurring in 1000 people of the specified population (Brachman, 1996). Cancer is prevalent in the current world, and though the rate of incidence and morbidity is important in research, the mortality rate is the most helpful in this website because it translates the gravity of the situation in the world. A website can only transmit limited information, and in order to transmit a message to a viewer, the most important information has to be stated in priority over other information. In this case, the mortality rate has been bolded, and it passes on the message of how rampant and fatal cancer is, therefore displaying its gravity in the world.
The mortality rate of disease determines how seriously it will be perceived by the world. It displays the number of people dying from the disease, and the percentage describes how well the disease is in or out of control by modern medicine. A disease with a high mortality rate indicates the inability of modern medicine to control it, or the lack of a cure. The mortality rate in this website clearly displays that cancer is still a leading cause of death and that modern medicine is still losing the fight against cancer, shown by the large percentage of deaths “13% of all deaths” (WHO, 2012).
Mortality has been analyzed further, and the percentage of deaths in low and middle-income families is highest. This further analysis of mortality helps to describe the ‘who’, which is a vital question of epidemiology. The mortality of those with cancer within low and middle-income families is 70% according to the website (WHO, 2012). This analysis displays the areas in need of intervention and further research to discover the relationship between the occurrence of high mortality and the causative agents in the specific society. There have been cancer interventions for some time in the world of health, and these interventions are periodically reviewed to find out the success rate. The mortality rate shown in this website is directive, showing that the interventions being pursued are insufficient in the low and middle-income society, portrayed by the higher mortality rate.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the mortality rate of cancer gives information about various scopes of the disease, from gravity to the success of interventions. By stating the mortality rate clearly, the extent of the deaths caused by the disease is described. The mortality rate within the low and middle-income society gives direction on intervention. It displays the disease intricately through the use of a simple percentage and is more efficient in capturing the attention of people viewing the website. It is a useful statistic on this website and the most helpful in passing information about the occurrence of cancer.
References
Brachman, S. P. (1996). Medical Microbiology(4thed.).Galvestone, TX: University of Texas.
WHO (2012). “Cancer”. World Health Organisation. Web.