Measures of Disease Frequency in Dental Public Health - Assignment Example

There are several measures of disease frequency that are used in dental public health, some of which have been discussed below (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003, p. 41, 51):

1. 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, the 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 are approximately 438,000 deaths each year (CDC, 2008). Therefore, cigarette smoking results in 5.5 million years of potential life lost 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 cases of the disease (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003). In a dental public health context, researchers in Israel have found that of the 4% of cancers that occur in the mouth and pharynx, 95% are squamous cell carcinoma (Gordon, Rishpon & Gorski, 2005). They also found that the case fatality rate of squamous cell carcinoma is as high as 50% and therefore, early diagnosis of this disease is very important (Gordon, Rishpon & Gorski, 2005).

6. Survival rate: It indicates the percentage of living cases per number of cases of the disease for a given period of time (Aschengrau & Seage, 2003). In the context of dental public health, more than 30,000 new cases of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx are diagnosed in the U.S. and more than 8,000 deaths occur due to this disease. The five-year survival rate for these cancers is approximately 50 percent (CDCb, 2011).

The usefulness of Measures of Disease Frequency to Dental Public Health Professionals
Professionals in the field of dental public health are involved in assessing the dental health needs of a population and developing protocols and strategies to improve the overall dental health of the population. There are many measures of disease frequency that are used in this discipline and they are very helpful to describe how widespread the dental health issues are with respect to the size of a population and a measure of time. The measures of disease frequency discussed earlier are therefore important tools that help dental public health professionals in recognizing and prioritizing the dental health needs of a population and allocating adequate resources towards the need. Some of the measures of disease frequency are incidence measures, some are prevalence measures and still, others are ratios.

Incidence measure is useful in understanding how frequently a disease occurs over a period of time. This information can be used to estimate an individual’s risk of getting the disease. Incidence is also useful in understanding the disease etiology (cause of disease). For example, when the incidence of oral cancer in a population increases, then dental public health professionals realize that there is a risk factor that is promoting the incidence. They can therefore focus their attention on identifying and resolving this issue.

Similarly, prevalence is another measure of disease frequency that is useful to quantify the burden of disease in a population at a given point in time. It helps to assess the impact of a problem within a community and determine the subsequent need. Again, calculating and comparing the prevalence of other diseases help dental health professionals to plan and provide health care services according to the need.

Other measures of disease frequency like morbidity, mortality, survival rate, and years of potential life lost help, dental public health professionals, in understanding the scope of the disease and its impact on the population. These measures assist the professionals to develop public health programs that target the at-risk population for prevention and early detection of the disease so that the cost of health care can be curtailed and the overall quality of life can be improved.