The main difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology is that descriptive epidemiology generates hypotheses on risk factors and causes of disease, whereas analytical epidemiology tests hypotheses by assessing the determinants of diseases, focusing on risk factors and causes as well as, analyzing the distribution of exposures and diseases. Furthermore, descriptive epidemiology is comparatively a small and less complex study area, while analytical epidemiology is a larger and more complex study area.
Descriptive and analytical epidemiology are two main areas of epidemiology that studies the distribution, patterns, and determinants of health and diseases in defined populations.
Key Areas Covered
1. What is Descriptive Epidemiology
– Definition, Features, Importance
2. What is Analytical Epidemiology
– Definition, Features, Importance
3. What are the Similarities Between Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology
– Outline of Common Features
4. What is the Difference Between Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology
– Comparison of Key Differences
Key Terms
Analytical Epidemiology, Descriptive Epidemiology, Making Hypotheses, Occurrence of Diseases, Testing Hypotheses
What is Descriptive Epidemiology
Descriptive epidemiology is one of the two main areas of epidemiological studies. It is responsible for the determination of the patterns of disease occurrence, focusing on clinical information, person, place, and time. Here, the clinical information includes the signs and symptoms of the disease, laboratory results, data on hospitalization, and live or dead numbers. Besides, it uses demographic information, including age, sex, material status, personal habits, etc. Also, it studies socioeconomic information such as education, occupation, income, residence, place of work, etc. Furthermore, cultural information, including ethnicity, dietary habits, and religious preferences, also have an effect on causing diseases.
Figure 1: Bar Graph of the Incidence of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury by Age Range
Generally, descriptive epidemiologists collect relatively accessible data used for program planning, generating hypotheses, and suggesting ideas for further studies. Moreover, the hypotheses produced by descriptive epidemiological studies are confirmed by the analytical epidemiology. Furthermore, the three main types of descriptive epidemiology are the case report, case studies, and incidence. Case reports describe the person, place, and time of a specific case while case series describes the person, place, and time of a group of cases. Incidence studies, on the other hand, describe the number of new cases during a specific time.
What is Analytical Epidemiology
Analytical epidemiology is the second area of epidemiology, and it is a more complex and broader area than descriptive epidemiology. It is responsible for testing the hypotheses built in descriptive epidemiology. Therefore, the main objective of analytical epidemiology is to assess the determinants of diseases, risk factors and causes, as well as, to analyze the distribution of diseases and their exposures. Additionally, the key feature of analytical epidemiology is that it uses comparison groups.
Figure 2: Table of Comparison of Prostate Screening Results Globally
Moreover, the two main types of analytical epidemiology are the experimental epidemiology and observational epidemiology. In experimental epidemiology, a randomized selection process based on chance is used to study different study groups. Sometimes, it can be clinical procedures, which study new drugs to prevent a particular disease in a community. In contrast, observational epidemiology is based on non-randomized studies. Moreover, they mainly study patterns of exposure. Furthermore, the four types of analytical epidemiology studies are cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, and ecologic.
Similarities Between Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology
- Descriptive and analytical epidemiology are two main study areas of epidemiology.
- Moreover, both study the distribution, patterns, and determinants of health and diseases in defined populations.
- Also, their main goals are to identify who is at risk and to provide clues to the cause of diseases.
- Therefore, they are a type of important activities in public health authorities.
Difference Between Descriptive and Analytical Epidemiology
Definition
Descriptive epidemiology refers to the area of epidemiology that focuses on describing disease distribution by characteristics relating to time, place, and people, while analytical epidemiology refers to the area of epidemiology, which measures the association between a particular exposure and a disease, using information collected from individuals, rather than from the aggregate population.
Importance
While descriptive epidemiology generates hypotheses on risk factors and causes of disease, analytical epidemiology tests hypotheses by assessing the determinants of diseases focusing on risk factors and causes as well as, analyzing the distribution of exposures and diseases. Thus, this is the main difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology.
Focuses on
Another difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology is that descriptive epidemiology focuses on what, who, when, and where disease can occur, while analytical epidemiology focuses on why and how disease occurs.
Significance
Furthermore, descriptive epidemiology is comparatively a small and less complex study area, while analytical epidemiology is a larger and more complex study area.
Broadness
Descriptive epidemiology uses individuals or a group of individuals to make hypotheses, while analytical epidemiology uses comparison groups to test hypotheses. Hence, this is also a difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology.
Types
Moreover, descriptive epidemiology includes case reports, case series, and incidence, while analytical epidemiology includes observational studies and experimental studies.
Examples
As an example, descriptive epidemiology examines case series using person, place, and time of first 100 patients with SARS, while analytical epidemiology measures risk factors for SARS such as contact with animals and infected people.
Conclusion
Descriptive epidemiology is one of the two main areas of epidemiology that produces hypotheses about the risk factors and causes of diseases. Analytical epidemiology, on the other hand, is the area of epidemiology which tests the above hypotheses. Moreover, it assesses the risk factors and analyzes the distribution of diseases. Therefore, the main difference between descriptive and analytical epidemiology is the type of study.
References:
1. Kobayashi, John. “Study Types in Epidemiology.” Nwcphp.org, Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. Available Here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “MTBI incidince bar graph” By self – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Prostate cancer global epidemiology” By US govt (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
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