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Epi Seminar Series |
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Health Sciences K069
3:30 to 4:50pm
Descriptive epidemiology of chronic disease and injury in Trinidad
 Juliet VanEenwyk, PhDState Epidemiologist for Non-Infectious Conditions Washington State Department of Health Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology
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Applied descriptive epidemiology: It’s not as straightforward as you might think!
Background: Descriptive epidemiology based on routinely collected health data provides the backbone of public health surveillance and is widely used in governmental settings to inform policy decisions and program development. Although descriptive epidemiology provides relatively simple statistics, complexities arise when developing these statistics for chronic disease and injury – especially when making international comparisons – due to variability in data collection, lack of consistent standards for data compilation and analysis, and uncertainty in population counts. This seminar uses a descriptive epidemiology of chronic disease and injury in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) to consider some of the complexities in calculating and comparing descriptive statistics and to illustrate the potential for using basic surveillance to inform policy development and program planning.
Methods: I used TT death certificate data from 1990-2004 and population data from the 1990 and 2000 TT censuses and official post-censal estimates to develop mortality rate estimates by age, gender, and small area within TT, and to assess time trends. To provide a global perspective on TT’s death rates, I compared rates in TT to those in countries with similar per capita gross domestic products, other Caribbean countries, and three developed countries with historic and economic ties to TT, obtaining data from several online sources.
Results: With some exceptions, patterns of chronic disease and injury in TT are consistent with TT’s demographics and stage of development based on patterns seen elsewhere. Relatively high mortality rates from diabetes and homicide, increasing rates of homicide and transport-related deaths, as well as stagnant death rates for ischemic heart disease are particularly troublesome given TT’s goal of becoming a developed country by 2020.
Conclusions: This descriptive epidemiology highlights areas for policy and program intervention to reduce burdens of disease. The TT death data are of sufficient quality to be useful for ongoing surveillance.
Light refreshments will be served.
For more information - please contact Ann Vander Stoep, PhD
Updated on July 2, 2009