M2 Disease Frequency Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

M2 Disease Frequency Paper - Assignment Example For example, the incidence of dental caries in the U.S. during the second half of the 20th century was significantly less than the incidence of dental caries in the first half of the 20th century. This can be attributed to the fact that public health authorities began fluoridating community drinking water in the middle of the 20th century (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2001). 2. Prevalence: It measures the occurrence of existing cases of a disease in a population for a specific period of time (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003). For example, researchers in India have found that the prevalence of oral cancer (especially squamous cell carcinoma) is extremely high among the poor (Yada, 2008). In fact, the prevalence of tobacco consumption increased up to the age of fifty years after which it leveled or declined (Yada, 2008). 3. Cause-specific mortality rate: It measures the number of deaths from a specific cause per 100,000 people per year (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003). Tobacco use can cause premature death from lung and other cancers, coronary heart disease, stroke and chronic respiratory diseases. In this context, smoking-attributable mortality rate (SAM) can be defined as the number of smoking related deaths per 100,000 people per year. For example, a recent study in Minnesota has revealed that the smoking attributable mortality rate in the state for adults aged 35 years and above is 215.1/100,000 people (CDC, 2011a). 4. Years of potential life lost: It refers to the estimated number of years that an individual would have lived if he or she had not died (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003). Cigarette smoking has been found to be responsible for one in every five deaths which is approximately 438,000 deaths each year (CDC, 2008). Therefore, cigarette smoking results in 5.5 million years of potential life list in the United States each year (CDC, 2008). 5. Case fatality rate: It is the number of deaths due to a specific disease as compared to the total number of