The total proportion of a population living with a disease or health condition at a given time, regardless of when it began, distinguished from incidence, which counts only new cases arising in a period. A disease can have low incidence but high prevalence if it is chronic and rarely resolves.
Facts
Concept ClassEpidemiology, measurement 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
In Branch
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Open Questions
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.Lead paragraph
prevalence, in epidemiology, the proportion of a population with a disease or a particular condition at a specific point in time (point prevalence) or over a specified period of time (period prevalence). Prevalence is often confused with incidence, which is concerned only with the measure of new cases in a population over a given interval of time.
- Associated With: Incidence
- In Branch: Epidemiology
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
What year did prevalence originate as a defined epidemiological measure?
Prevalence is defined by every standard reference as the proportion of a population living with a disease or condition at a given time, but the Encyclopedia Britannica overview cited on this entity and the Wikipedia article on prevalence both give the definition with no first use, no originating publication and no individual credited with introducing the term, unlike eponymous measures on this atlas such as body mass index (Adolphe Quetelet, 1832) and herd immunity (1894).
What would resolve this A source tracing the term prevalence, in its epidemiological sense, to a specific publication and naming when it entered standard use, or a scholarly consensus that the term developed gradually with no single point of origin.
History of epidemiologyEncyclopedia Britannica
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