Epidemiology in Genetic Studies from the Public Health Perspective

Abstract

Epidemiology is the most important and frequently used scientific basic tool for public health researchers. There are different definitions given for epidemiology, but it can be briefly defined as the process of detection, investigation, and analysis of the causes of diseases in the human populations [1]. It is a methodology, which preventive medicine use to control and prevent the diseases also to improve the health status of the public in general. It is known that there is a heredity role in the majority of common human diseases because of that a multidisciplinary approach is required for a full understanding of the etiology of diseases [2]. Many non-infectious chronic diseases (cancer, allergy, asthma, diabetes mellitus, obesity, occupational diseases, neurological diseases, mental diseases, cardiovascular diseases etc.) which are estimated that associated with genetic structure of the human are still being investigated in the worldwide [3,4]. Genetic epidemiology is fairly a new discipline that has to research very large different fields. Genetic epidemiology is the methodology that is used to investigate the frequency, distribution, and cause of disease, and to examine to what extent factors that play a role in diseases are genetic or environmental, and to reveal the genetic structureenvironment interaction dimension. The research methods used in genetic epidemiologic studies can be similar with the designs that are used in general epidemiology (clinical trials, case controls, cohort studies etc.) [5]. Day by day, the attention on genetic epidemiology has increased as the mechanisms of genetic risk factors on health are diagnosed and understood. In particular, well-organized populationbased molecular epidemiology studies and prospective cohort studies have an important role in understanding the interaction between genetics and the environment in multi-factorial human diseases.