As an epidemiologist, Dr. Thompson is interested in determining the frequency with which a specified event occurs within a parti
cular population at a certain instant or during a particular period. This measure is known as a rate. In epidemiologic practice, an attack rate is the most commonly used method of determining the extent or frequency with which a disease is experienced by a population of individuals. In this instance, Dr. Thompson is interested in knowing what percentage of the individuals who attended the July 4 celebration became ill. The attack rate is the number of individuals treated and/or had symptoms divided by the number of attending individuals. What is the attack rate of food poisoning among the group who attended the July 4 celebration?
If the epidemiologist Dr. Thompson wants to assess the intoxication rate, evaluating the number of people intoxicated over the number of people who eat at the event, since they have attended the event does not mean that they have all eaten the event food.
Explanation:
Whenever we want to evaluate the rate, we will be relating to the frequency of what happened in a given time and over a given population.
The rate will always measure the relationship of one event to another, in this case in the poisoning rate we measure the event of those who ate food, with those who became intoxicated.
