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In epidemiology, a clinical case definition, [1] a clinical definition, or simply a case definition [2] lists the clinical criteria by which public health professionals determine whether a person's illness is included as a case in an outbreak investigation—that is, whether a person is considered directly affected by an outbreak.
The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, [1] or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. [2] It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome (not necessarily contagious) to be described in the medical literature, whether or not the patient ...
In medicine, a case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence. Some case reports also contain a literature review of other reported cases.
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent.
Case series have a descriptive study design; unlike studies that employ an analytic design (e.g. cohort studies, case-control studies or randomized controlled trials), case series do not, in themselves, involve hypothesis testing to look for evidence of cause and effect (though case-only analyses are sometimes performed in genetic epidemiology ...
An epidemic curve, also known as an epi curve or epidemiological curve, is a statistical chart used in epidemiology to visualise the onset of a disease outbreak. It can help with the identification of the mode of transmission of the disease. It can also show the disease's magnitude, whether cases are clustered or if there are individual case ...
A case report form (or CRF) is a paper or electronic questionnaire specifically used in clinical trial research. [1] The case report form is the tool used by the sponsor of the clinical trial to collect data from each participating patient.
Epidemiological (and other observational) studies typically highlight associations between exposures and outcomes, rather than causation. While some consider this a limitation of observational research, epidemiological models of causation (e.g. Bradford Hill criteria) [7] contend that an entire body of evidence is needed before determining if an association is truly causal. [8]