epidemiyolojiye

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states and events in populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems. It seeks to describe patterns of disease by person, place, and time; to identify risk factors; and to evaluate preventive and therapeutic interventions. In Turkish usage, the field is epidemioloji, and the dative form epidemiolojiye is used in phrases such as epidemiolojiye ilişkin çalışmalar.

The discipline relies on systematic data collection and rigorous study designs to infer causal relationships and to quantify disease burden. Common study designs include cohort studies, case-control studies, and cross-sectional surveys; experimental approaches such as randomized controlled trials are also used. Key measures include incidence, prevalence, relative risk, and odds ratio, often complemented by confidence intervals and p-values. Analytical methods span regression modeling, time-series analysis, and multilevel techniques to account for complex data structures and confounding.

Applications of epidemiology are broad and essential to public health. Surveilling disease trends, identifying and quantifying risk factors, evaluating the impact of interventions, and informing health policy are central tasks. The field intersects with biostatistics, social and environmental sciences, and health economics, emphasizing data quality, ethics, and the control of bias and confounding in interpretation.

Historically, epidemiology emerged from investigations of infectious diseases in the 19th century and evolved to address chronic diseases, injuries, and environmental exposures. Pioneers such as John Snow and Florence Nightingale helped establish methods that underpin modern surveillance, outbreak response, and evidence-based public health decisions. Today, epidemiology remains a foundational science for understanding health patterns and guiding preventive strategies.