Disease Detectives B/C

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

Hi everyone,

I was assigned DD for state after regionals and I've never done the event before. I see an abundance of resources in this forum and it's slightly overwhelming. Does anyone have any tips on where to begin (besides the wiki)?

Thanks,
me

Take a look through the CDC textbook and skim through some of it. Maybe look at the MMWR or the CDC game Solve the Outbreak to get an intuition for the event. After that, read through the rules and take notes for all the topics mentioned. After that, you should be more than fine. Hopefully you have a good partner. I recommend taking a practice test or two before states together.

[huppada]

Hi everyone,

I was assigned DD for state after regionals and I've never done the event before. I see an abundance of resources in this forum and it's slightly overwhelming. Does anyone have any tips on where to begin (besides the wiki)?

Thanks,
me

Take a look through the CDC textbook and skim through some of it. Maybe look at the MMWR or the CDC game Solve the Outbreak to get an intuition for the event. After that, read through the rules and take notes for all the topics mentioned. After that, you should be more than fine. Hopefully you have a good partner. I recommend taking a practice test or two before states together.

Also, take and absorb as many tests as you can. This event mainly asks you the same type of questions, and taking multiple tests is a easy and effective way to cover all the topics.

[Froggie]

I'm getting conflicting answers about the formula for incidence. I know that incidence rate is cases/(person*time). Some sources say that incidence is cases/population/time, while others say that incidence is new cases/population. Does anyone have a definite formula?

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

I'm getting conflicting answers about the formula for incidence. I know that incidence rate is cases/(person*time). Some sources say that incidence is cases/population/time, while others say that incidence is new cases/population. Does anyone have a definite formula?

Cases/population/time and cases/population are effectively the same thing if a time range is given (e.g. 6 cases/person/year vs 6 cases/person in one year or 10 cases/person/year vs 20 cases/person in two years). I would just go with the former.

[Froggie]

I'm getting conflicting answers about the formula for incidence. I know that incidence rate is cases/(person*time). Some sources say that incidence is cases/population/time, while others say that incidence is new cases/population. Does anyone have a definite formula?

Cases/population/time and cases/population are effectively the same thing if a time range is given (e.g. 6 cases/person/year vs 6 cases/person in one year or 10 cases/person/year vs 20 cases/person in two years). I would just go with the former.

Ok that's what I thought. Thanks!

[404ic]

Does anyone know the difference between efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness in the context of DD?

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

Does anyone know the difference between efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness in the context of DD?

Generally:
Efficiency - using minimal resources to do something well
Efficacy - producing the desired theoretical results
Effectiveness - producing day-to-day results under "real life" conditions

[404ic]

I saw in a test question that epidemiologists are starting to shift from the epidemiological triad and that there is a new equivalent to this triad. I couldn't find anything on the internet relating to this; does anyone know what this question is referring to?

[poonicle]

I saw in a test question that epidemiologists are starting to shift from the epidemiological triad and that there is a new equivalent to this triad. I couldn't find anything on the internet relating to this; does anyone know what this question is referring to?

From what I know this is a result of not all aspects of the epidemiological triad being needed for a disease to occur (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). According to the CDC website, causal pies are an alternative (for diseases with several contributing causes without a single necessary cause). Idk why but it seems that the CDC website took down the web course on epidemiology... RIP

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

I saw in a test question that epidemiologists are starting to shift from the epidemiological triad and that there is a new equivalent to this triad. I couldn't find anything on the internet relating to this; does anyone know what this question is referring to?

From what I know this is a result of not all aspects of the epidemiological triad being needed for a disease to occur (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). According to the CDC website, causal pies are an alternative (for diseases with several contributing causes without a single necessary cause). Idk why but it seems that the CDC website took down the web course on epidemiology... RIP

There's always the Wayback Machine... haven't checked, but it's probably on there?