Epidemiological transition

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The epidemiological transition describes the changes in the incidence of diseases and causes of death as a consequence and cause of the demographic transition .

Since the end of the 18th century until today, a change in the frequency of certain diseases or causes of death within large population groups can be observed in developing countries. This “change in the morbidity structure” is characterized by the replacement of infectious diseases as the most common cause of death by chronic degenerative diseases. The change can be divided into four phases:

  1. the age of epidemics and famine (18th century to mid-19th century), characterized by major epidemics or pandemics and infectious diseases as the most common cause of death (phase 1),
  2. the age of declining infectious diseases (mid-19th century to mid-20th century), characterized by the decline in infectious diseases as the cause of death (phase 2),
  3. the age of socially caused diseases, shaped by cardiovascular diseases , cancer and accidents as frequent causes of premature death. (2nd half of the 20th century) (phase 3),
  4. the age of degenerative and age-related diseases, characterized by heart failure and dementia as the most common causes of death (from the end of the 20th century) (phase 4).

The demographic transition manifests itself mainly in the increase in the mean life expectancy of the individuals in the population under consideration and causes a change in the age structure of this population. The associated epidemiological transition is a self-reinforcing process, since it is precisely this change in the age structure that causes a change in the clinical pictures that occur. These changes are closely related to other changes in the structure of the society . Larger changes in mean life expectancy always emerge after profound sociological and economic changes, such as those that were observed after and during industrialization , with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England in 1785. However, the epidemiological transition is not an irreversible process that is only characterized by an increase in mean life expectancy. Examples of a counterpart to the current situation in modern countries are the former Eastern Bloc countries, for example Ukraine, where cholera has been sporadic again for several years.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes Siegrist: Medical Sociology