Aduna, Naomi Bless

Masa, Kassandra Joanne

Viray, James Renzo
 BACKGROUND
Major goal of epidemiology is to assist in the
prevention and control of disease and in the
promotion of health by discovering the cause
of disease and the ways in which they can be
modified.
 CONCEPT OF CAUSE
Understanding of the causes of disease is
important in the field of health not only for
prevention but also in diagnosis and the
application of treatment.

Cause of a disease is an event, condition,

characteristic, or combination of factors which
plays an important role in producing the disease.
 FACTORS IN CAUSATION
PREDISPOSING FACTORS
ENABLING FACTORS
PRECIPITATING FACTORS
REINFORCING FACTORS
PREDISPOSING FACTORS
create a state of susceptibility to a disease
agent.
E.g. age, sex, previous illness. These may
have no direct bearing on the cause of the
disease but they aid other risk factors e.g.
salivary gland diseases for caries
development.
 ENABLING FACTORS
environmental conditions which favor the
development of disease.
E.g. low income, poor housing, poor
nutrition, inadequate medical facility.
PRECIPITATING FACTORS
specific or noxious agent, exposure to which
can be associated with the onset of a
disease.
E.g. pollens in asthmatic attack.
 REINFORCING FACTORS
factors which aggravates an already
established disease or state.
E.g. repeated exposure and unduly hard
work.
 MULTIPLE CAUSATION
Also known as Multiple Causality or
Multifactorial Etiology

The requirement that more than one factor

be present for disease to develop,
 MULTIPLE CAUSATION
Multiple factors can individually cause same
disease of Interest.
 MULTIPLE CAUSATION
Cumulative effect of factors causing disease.
 MULTIPLE CAUSATION
Criteria for judging causality
Temporal association
Strength of association
Consistency of association
Biological plausibility
Coherence of association
Example of Models used:
Epidemiologic triangle
Web of causation
Wheel model
Pie model
Web of Causation
A popular metaphor for the theory of
sequential and linked multiple causes of
diseases and other health states.
Implicates broadcast of events and
represents an incomplete portrayal of reality.
Web of Causation
Wheel Model
The model explains the etiology of disease by calling in
to play host and environment interactions.

Similar to the epidemiologic triangle and web of

causation with respect to involving multiple causality

Maybe used to account to for occurrence of diseases

e.g. childhood lead poisoning
Wheel Model
Pie Model
The model indicates that a disease maybe
caused by more than one causal mechanism
(also called as sufficient cause).

Sufficient cause defined as a set of minimal

conditions and events that inevitably produce
disease.
Pie Model