Reference no: EM132213434
Discussion
Incidence and prevalence are commonly used to measure the existence of disease in a population. In what instances would prevalence be a better indicator of disease burden than incidence? When would incidence be a more appropriate measure? When responding to your classmates, offer additional examples of appropriate uses for incidence and prevalence and explain how the two measures are related.
Response one discussion -03
The incidence rate reports the rate of a new diagnosis in a specified population over a defined period of time (Friis& Sellers, 2014). This measurement is useful when working on the cause, treatment or prevention of a disease. A great example of this is with hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP). Munro and Baker (2018) examined the prevalence of HAP before a standardized oral care process was implemented and after.
They hypothesized that keeping patient's mouths clean would lower the bacterial burden and, therefore, the HAP incidence rate. The study found that the incidence rate of HAP significantly decreased with the standardized oral care protocol. As a result of the positive findings, multiple Veteran's institutions have adopted the protocol and it is being considered for national implementation within the Veteran's Hospital system (Munro & Baker, 2018).
Prevalence is the measurement of those affected by a disease at a particular point in time. Understanding the burden of disease within a population is useful when deciding how to allocate resources. A recent study sought to define the prevalence of sepsis in 409 hospitals from 2009 - 2014.
The study found that sepsis was present in 6% of the hospital population over the course of the study (Rhee et al., 2017). When examining how to allocate resources, 6% may seem small but there are other issues to consider. In this case, sepsis remains a focus within healthcare because it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide (Schorr, 2018).
References
Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. A. (2014). Epidemiology for public health practice (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning LLC.
Munro, S., & Baker, D. (2018, September 16). Reducing missed oral care opportunities to prevent non-ventilator associated hospital acquired pneumonia at the Department of Veterans Affairs.Applied Nursing Research, 44, 48-53.
Rhee, C., Dantes, R., Epstein, L., Murphy, D. J., Seymour, C. W., Iwashyna, T. J., ...Klompas, M. (2017, October 3). Incidence and trends of sepsis in US hospitals using clinical vs claims data, 2009-2014. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 318(13), 1241-1249.
Schorr, C. (2018, September). Surviving sepsis campaign hour-1 bundle: This 2018 update to the sepsis bundle focuses on beginning treatment immediately. American Nurse Today, 13(9), 16-19.
Response two discussion-03
Prevalence is defined as the number of current cases of a disease within a population at a chosen time (Friis& Sellers, 2014, p. 113). This type of data is important when determining the range of health services that may be needed in order to adequately treat a group of people within a community. Prevalence can be indicated during a specific period of time (period prevalence), or during a single point in time (point prevalence).
Incidence is referred to as the number of new cases of a given disease within a population over a particular time (Tatum & Jallon, 2009). Incidence can help us to better understand the rate in which a disease is occurring throughout time. By studying the incidence of a disease we can observe various patterns and changes that have occurred.
The largest difference between prevalence and incidence is that prevalence works with existing cases, whereas incidence works with new cases. However, both are often needed to combine in order to receive the most information, producing a better outcome. For example, when studying epilepsy we often just focus on the incidence, or number of new cases per year.
The incidence of epilepsy is broken down into several branches, such as classification, diagnosis (isolated, active), and inclusion criteria (Tatum & Jallon, 2009). Prevalence allows us to study the variation between more specific demographics, such as age, race, and gender of those diagnosed with the disease.
The Rochester, Minnesota, epidemiologic study found a rising incidence and prevalence in the elderly population of those that suffer from epilepsy (Tatum & Jallon 2009). When we combine incidence with the prevalence of the disease we are able to see a better breakdown of the factors that may be linked to its cause and treatment.
References:
Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. A. (2014). Epidemiology for Public Health Practice (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Incidence. (2009). In W. Tatum, P. Kaplan, & P. Jallon, Epilepsy A to Z: a concise encyclopedia (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Demos Medical Publishing.
Prevalence. (2009). In W. Tatum, P. Kaplan, & P. Jallon, Epilepsy A to Z: a concise encyclopedia (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Demos Medical Publishing.