Abstract
A major aim of epidemiological research is to measure disease occurrence in relation to various characteristics such as exposure to environmental, occupational, or lifestyle risk factors, genetic traits, or other features. In this chapter, various measures will be considered that quantify disease occurrence, associations between disease occurrence and these characteristics, as well as their consequences in terms of both disease risk and impact at the population level. As a common practice, the generic term exposure will be used throughout the chapter to denote such characteristics. Emphasis will be placed on measures based on occurrence of new disease cases, referred to as disease incidence. Measures based on disease prevalence, i.e., considering newly occurring and previously existing disease cases as a whole, will be considered more briefly.
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Beichou, J., Palta, M. (2014). Rates, Risks, Measures of Association and Impact. In: Ahrens, W., Pigeot, I. (eds) Handbook of Epidemiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_3
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