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LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 18
| Issue : 1 | Page : 36 |
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Understanding epidemiological correlates: A comment on study the epidemiological profile of taxi drivers in the background of occupational environment, stress, and personality characteristics
Kanica Kaushal
Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
| Date of Web Publication | 21-Jun-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Kanica Kaushal
Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0019-5278.134960
How to cite this article:
Kaushal K. Understanding epidemiological correlates: A comment on study the epidemiological profile of taxi drivers in the background of occupational environment, stress, and personality characteristics. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2014;18:36 |
How to cite this URL:
Kaushal K. Understanding epidemiological correlates: A comment on study the epidemiological profile of taxi drivers in the background of occupational environment, stress, and personality characteristics. Indian J Occup Environ Med [serial online] 2014 [cited 2023 Mar 20];18:36. Available from: https://www.ijoem.com/text.asp?2014/18/1/36/134960 |
Dear Sir,
This is in reference to the article, "Study the epidemiological profile of taxi drivers in the background of occupational environment, stress, and personality characteristics" published in Indian J Occup Environ Med 2013;17:108-13. [1]
The authors have conducted a cross-sectional (descriptive) study on taxi drivers in Mumbai and have done a commendable job to study the relative and combined influence of work environment, personality characteristics, and stress on the health of taxi drivers and have studied their epidemiological profile. However, I have a few concerns regarding the epidemiological correlates in this study.
Epidemiology has a very complex definition and is defined as the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems. [2] The term "distribution" (in the definition) is concerned with the frequency and pattern of health events in the population. Frequency refers to the number of health events and the relationship of that number to the size of the population. Pattern refers to the occurrence of health-related events by the time (any time that may influence the disease occurrence), place (geographic variation, urban/rural differences), and person (demographic factors, which may be related to risk of illness, injury, or disability such as age, sex, marital status, and socioeconomic status, as well as behaviors, and environmental exposures). [2]
Further epidemiology is also used to search for "determinants", which are the causes and other factors that influence the occurrence of disease and other health-related events and this provide the "Why" and "How" of the event. They assess whether groups with different rates of disease differ in their demography, genetic make-up or other so-called potential risk factors. [2]
What authors have given in the results is the sociodemographic profile of the participants, age group of the majority of patients, marital status, the origin of drivers, and religion. Sociodemographic profile just gives us about the person component of the pattern of health events.
The readers would have been benefitted more if the authors had given the correlates of epidemiology keeping in mind the multifaceted definition of epidemiology and explaining epidemiology profile of taxi drivers under the categories of descriptive (frequency and pattern) and analytical (causes and risk factors) epidemiology.
Further as per definition, epidemiology is just not restricted to the study of the population only but also takes in account the application of the knowledge gained by the studies to propose appropriate, practical, and acceptable public health interventions to control and prevent disease in the community which further is not provided in this study. [2]
| References | |  |
| 1. | Bawa MS, Srivastav M. Study the epidemiological profile of taxi drivers in the background of occupational environment, stress and personality characteristics. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2013;17:108-13. 
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| 2. | Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice. An Introduction to Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/.osels/scientific_edu/ss1978/SS1978.pdf. [Last accessed on 2014 Apr 14].
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