Definition of Epidemiology
(noun) The study of disease and health, and their causes and distribution.
Examples of Epidemiology
- How work causes occupational diseases and impacts life expectancy.
- Investigating the source of cancer clusters.
- Researching socioeconomic indicators of alcoholism.
- The global locations of deficiency disease caused by malnutrition.
Epidemiology Pronunciation
Syllabification: ep·i·de·mi·ol·o·gy
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /ep-uh-dee-mee-AH-luh-jee/
- British English – /e-pi-dee-mi-O-luh-jee/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˌɛpəˌdɛmiˈɑləʤi/
- British English – /ɛpɪˌdiːmɪˈɒlədʒi/
Usage Notes
- Plural: epidemiologies
- An (noun) epidemiologist studies (adjective) epidemiological or (adjective) epidemiologic information (adverb) epidemiologically.
Additional Information
- Aging and Social Gerontology Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Death and Dying Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Food and Agriculture Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Medical Sociology Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “epidemiology” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Hyyppä, Markku T. 2010. Healthy Ties: Social Capital, Population Health and Survival. New York: Springer.
- Kabat, Geoffrey C. 2008. Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology. New York: Columbia University Press.
Related Terms
Works Consulted
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Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Epidemiology
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “epidemiology.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved November 28, 2023 (https://sociologydictionary.org/epidemiology/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
epidemiology. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/epidemiology/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “epidemiology.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed November 28, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/epidemiology/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“epidemiology.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/epidemiology/>.