Mortality

1. Mortality This refers to what people die from. It is linked to words like ‘Mortuary’, which his where people are put when they die before they are buried or cremated Click here to see what people died from in the 19th century James Brown in his open coffin

2. Morbidity This refers to what people are ill from. If you are looking at morbidity rates, you are examining what illnesses people have. Morbidity, disease and illness are all words that can be interchanged. Lets do our own epidemiological research: Make a chart that details what people in this class have been ill from and when. (Don’t feel you have give details if you don’t want to)

3. Disease Incidence The number of NEW cases occurring in a given period of time Imagine a student goes to university. She lives in a halls of residence. In her second week she is diagnosed with meningitis. She is the only person with the disease. Health professionals would recognise that there has been AN incidence of meningitis at the university halls of residence.

4. Disease Prevalence “The number of cases of a certain disease at any one time.” 38 more students catch meningitis from the original student because they all live and study in close proximity. Health professionals would say there is a HIGH prevalence of meningitis in the halls of residence. What would they do?

5. Health Events • Specific ‘outreach’ events. • They are usually there for monitoring the population. They are doing tests to find out if people have a disease. • Breast cancer screening – sometimes there is a temporary clinic in Morrison’s car park. • Who is seen by these health events? What can that do to the epidemiological data? Chlamydia testing – done in night clubs at colleges etc