Principles of the Surveillance in Epidemiology - Essay Example

"Principles of the Surveillance in Epidemiology" is a wonderful example of epidemiology research.
In carrying out research, it is not possible to get data from everyone in the population, and this is why a section of the population is used to represent the whole population. Of course, a few measures might need to be considered so that the data that has been collected will represent the entire population. However, the data collected should be collected from a cross-section of the entire population. In this regard, I disagree with the use of this data to represent the whole nation. This is because collecting sample data is more effective when collected across the population (Rothman, 29).

The objection cannot be overlooked because of at least two reasons. First, in collecting representative data, it is usually better to collect the data across the entire population to eliminate the risk of any discrepancies appearing between one area and the other. However, for this objection to be valid, one would have to provide enough evidence that there are discrepancies between the area where the data was collected and the rest of the nation (Rothman, 29).

I do not agree with the epidemiologist because data about human health is very likely to vary from one part of a nation to the other. Assuming that the data of a single region can be used to explain the same issues across the nation can lead to a grave error thus giving the wrong results. The best way to collect data that is reliable is by having a cross-section of the entire population rather than a cross-section of part of a population and then assuming that this is a representation of the entire population across the country.

Question 2

Surveillance systems in epidemiology refer to the methods used in studying health events within the population. Surveillance as Nada and Majd (1-15) say has two main purposes. The first is to measure and monitor disease burden on a population. The second purpose for surveillance is to detect outbreaks and give alerts for earl response.

Surveillance, therefore, has five major components as follows;

1. Defining target events/diseases

The definition starts with pointing the target population and the target health issue being investigated. This is involved in defining the objectives of the specific surveillance about to be carried. The objectives may be either control of a health issue, eradication, or elimination of a health risk.

2. Defining structure

Defining the structure of the surveillance system involves looking at the various laws and legislations surrounding the issues. It, therefore, looks at the various stakeholders affecting the issues and planning the surveillance project around these issues. Data sources at this point are also identified and looked at plans on how to consolidate this data made (Nada & Majd, 1-15).

3. Core functions of the surveillance

These include the case detection, case registration, case confirmation, case notification, case investigation, data analysis, and finally, information communication (Nada & Majd, 1-15).

4. Support functions

These include functions that will help in carrying out successful surveillance such as supervision services, laboratory support, monitoring, ICT system for communicating data, training sessions, etc.

5. Attributes of the surveillance system

This has to do with evaluating the effectiveness of the surveillance system. A surveillance system can be modeled around quantitative or qualitative attributes and these must be looked at properly.