Incidence Vs. Prevalence
Incidence should not be confused with prevalence, which is a measure of the total number of cases of disease in a population rather than the rate of occurrence of new cases. Thus, incidence conveys information about the risk of contracting the disease, whereas prevalence indicates how widespread the disease is. Prevalence is the proportion of the total number of cases to the total population and is more a measure of the burden of the disease on society. Prevalence can also be measured with respect to a specific subgroup of a population (see: denominator data). Incidence is usually more useful than prevalence in understanding the disease etiology: for example, if the incidence rate population of a disease increases, then there is a risk factor that promotes the incidence.
For example, consider a disease that takes a long time to cure and was widespread in 2002 but dissipated in 2003. This disease will have both high incidence and high prevalence in 2002, but in 2003 it will have a low incidence yet will continue to have a high prevalence (because it takes a long time to cure, so the fraction of affected individuals remains high). In contrast, a disease that has a short duration may have a low prevalence and a high incidence. When the incidence is approximately constant for the duration of the disease, prevalence is approximately the product of disease incidence and average disease duration, so prevalence = incidence × duration. The importance of this equation is in the relation between prevalence and incidence; for example, when the incidence increases, then the prevalence must also increase. Note that this relation does not hold for age-specific prevalence and incidence, where the relation becomes more complicated.
When studying the etiology of a disease, it is better to analyze incidence rather than prevalence since prevalence considers the duration of a condition rather than providing a measure of risk alone.
Read more about this topic: Incidence (epidemiology)
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