Graded Homework

HCA 402: Skills
Assessment #1: Calculating Case Rates

All case rates have two things in common, 1) A numerator or case
count, and 2) a denominator (population). Calculating case rates isn’t rocket
science, but obtaining accurate numbers to describe a populations’ health can
be quite a challenge. So, let’s start with a case with available numbers.

A grade school asthma study was performed at Dolphin View
Elementary. There were 120 asthma cases in a school population of 1,500. During
the calendar year 2011, of the 120 cases total, 20 cases were newly diagnosed.
There was 1 death during the year studies due to acute status asthmaticus.

1) Calculate the disease prevalence, disease
incidence and mortality rate for the school.

Dolphin View Elementary Asthma Study: (Illustrative) Meyer (2012)
Epidemiology Case Counts = 120	Population = 1,500	New Cases = 20	Deaths = 1	Time Period CY 2011
The quantitative existence of the disease in the population
Prevalence Rate =	number of diseased people at a point in time/	cases	_______	x 1,000 =
number of individuals in the population	population
	______Cases per 1,000
The speed of new cases of a disease in the population
Incidence Rate =	number of new cases during the set time period/	cases	_______	x 1,000 =
number of individuals in the population	population
	______Cases per 1,000
Mortality Rate =	number of new deaths of the disease in the period/	Case(s)	_______	x 1,000 =
sum of risk period for all individuals	population
	______Cases per 1,000

2) How may the
school administration and public health epidemiologists use this information to
monitor and improve the health of Dolphin View Elementary students and its
community at large?