Below is my classmate’s response. When responding to my classmate, offer additional examples of appropriate uses for incidence and prevalence and explain how the two measures are related. The answer has to be a minimum of 50 words with one scholarly and/or peer-reviewed citation and reference. Thank you.

Epidemiologists study the health of population groups within societies or countries. This information helps to plan health programs and compares health of a community with another. Two of the most commonly used terms in epidemiology are prevalence and incidence. Prevalence is defined as the number of existing cases of a disease or health condition in a population at some designated time. Prevalence provides an indication of the extension of a health problem. It describes the burden of a health problem in a certain population while estimating the frequency of an exposure of a disease. It also helps to determine distribution of health resources like facilities and personnel. Prevalence is also most used to report the number of cases as a fraction of the total population at risk. It can also be used to categorize according to different subsets of the population. Prevalence would be a better indicator of disease burden because for factors like facilities and personnel within a community. For example administrators in pediatric hospital know that the prevalence of respiratory infections is highest in the winter months, so plan staffing levels accordingly within the community.

Incidence is the rate of newly diagnosed cases of the certain disease within a definite period of time. It is more useful when the incidence rate is reported as a fraction of the population at risk of developing the disease. The accuracy of incidence data depends upon the accuracy of diagnosis and reporting of the disease. In some cases it may be more appropriate to report the rate of treatment of new cases since these are known while the actual incidence of untreated cases is not known. Incidence rates can be further categorized according to different subsets of the population like by gender, age or diagnostic category. Incidence be a more appropriate measure to use in certain cases because you would want to identify the population that is at risk of developing the disease. For example HIV cases diagnosed in a certain population in a given year among American aged 18-30.