What does prevalence mean in medical terms?

What does prevalence mean in medical terms?

Listen to pronunciation. (PREH-vih-lents) In medicine, a measure of the total number of people in a specific group who have (or had) a certain disease, condition, or risk factor (such as smoking or obesity) at a specific point in time or during a given period of time.

Whats the meaning of prevalence?

Definition. Prevalence is the proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period.

What is prevalence and its types?

It is usually presented as x cases per 1,000 (or 10,000 or 100,000) people in the population. There are two types of prevalence: point prevalence (the type of prevalence most commonly reported) and period prevalence. Consider the example of the common cold.

What is diagnosed prevalence?

A prevalence rate is the total number of cases of a disease existing in a population divided by the total population. So, if a measurement of cancer is taken in a population of 40,000 people and 1,200 were recently diagnosed with cancer and 3,500 are living with cancer, then the prevalence of cancer is 0.118. (

What is prevalence point?

Definition of prevalence Point prevalence refers to the prevalence measured at a particular point in time. It is the proportion of persons with a particular disease or attribute on a particular date. Period prevalence refers to prevalence measured over an interval of time.

What is difference between incidence and prevalence?

Prevalence refers to proportion of persons who have a condition at or during a particular time period, whereas incidence refers to the proportion or rate of persons who develop a condition during a particular time period.

What is a prevalence ratio?

The prevalence of a health outcome is simply the proportion of individuals with the health outcome in a population. The prevalence ratio (PR) is analogous to the risk ratio (RR) of cohort studies.

What is the best definition of incidence?

1a : rate of occurrence or influence a high incidence of crime. b : an act or the fact or manner of falling upon or affecting : occurrence. 2a : angle of incidence. b : the arrival of something (such as a projectile or a ray of light) at a surface.

What does point prevalence mean?

What is the difference between incidence vs. prevalence?

• Prevalence is the ratio of the total number of patients diagnosed and getting treatment to the total population whereas incidence is the ratio of total new cases in a population divided by total population • In studying etiology of a disease, it is incidence that is more important. Thus,…

What does prevalence mean in medical dictionary?

Prevalence: The proportion of individuals in a population having a disease or characteristic. Prevalence is a statistical concept referring to the number of cases of a disease that are present in a particular population at a given time, whereas incidence refers to the number of new cases that develop in a given period of time.

Is prevalence is a measure of risk?

Prevalence measures the frequency of existing cases of disease in a population. In contrast, incidence is a measure of the number of new cases of a disease (or another health outcome) that develop in a population of individuals at risk, during a specified time period. There are two main measures of incidence: Risk.

What does prevalence rate mean?

prevalence rate the number of people in a population who have a disease at a given time: the numerator is the number of existing cases of disease at a specified time and the denominator is the total population.