Free Custom «The Epidemiology» Essay Paper

Autism spectrum disorder prevalence in the year 2006 was found to have gone down. This was done on children who are aged eight years. The population of the children was 1000 (Center For Disease and Prevention, 2006). The prevalence can be seen to have reduced in states like Florida, Alabama. This was attributed by the fact that these regions have access to the information based on this disorder. In all these sites the prevalence is seen to be higher among boys than girls. For example, the prevalence can be seen to be 7.3 to that of the female whose prevalence is seen to be at 1.0. The prevalence of this disorder is also higher among the white Hispanics as compared to the black or non-Hispanic by rating at 9.9 and 7.2, respectively. The regions that have access to educative information were enlightened and this disorder is expected to reduce by 34 percent. The average age that a child can be diagnosed with this disorder is from forty one months to sixty months. The prevalence of autism is seen to have increased between the years 2002-2006 (CDC, 2009).

The screening and diagnosis of autistic disorders

Screening can be done by determining if a child shows no sign of gesture by the first half year of growth while evidence of minimal words spoken by eighteenth month. Later stages diagnosis is made through the symptoms that are related to autism like poor communication from the child, poor social interaction with others, repetitive behaviors like hand movement, the children are very uneasy with noise and are used to routines (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012)

The possible genetic associations with the occurrence of autism

Some of the genetic factors that are related to occurrence of autism are the sex issue. The race is the other basic genetic influence. Due to the fragile X syndrome that is proven to affect the male specie more than the female. Tuberous sclerosis can also be a key issue to the development of autism disorder. Children with chromosome abnormalities are also easily affected by the autism disorder. Neurofibromatosis type 1 is also associated with the disorder, which in most situations is inherited (CDC, 2009).

The possible environmental associations with the occurrence of autism

Environmental factors such as the environment of the mother’s womb during child development are important. This includes the use of drug substance during pregnancy and some infections during pregnancy can trigger autism disorder syndrome (Cone, 2009).

Treatment of autism

Diagnosis that is done early is an equally important treatment to autism. Part of the treatment process that is involved in autism involves identifying the behaviors and how to manage those behaviors that are associated with autism therapies such as speech; and physical therapy is a part of treatment. The medicine that is normally given is basically for treating the behavioral problems that are related to autism.

Epidemiology of Traumatic Brain Injury and the recent congressional hearings on student sports related concussions

Epidemiology related cases to the brain are often more likely to result to death or may lead to disability that is permanent. Another impact can be having an impaired concentration. TBI is not easily identifiable hence devastating effects. It is mostly diagnosed with athletes therefore there is the need for all the athletes who are injured to go for screening. Children and adolescents develop this condition more frequently than the adults. But this symptom can also affect the adults. An example of traumatic brain injury can be seen in Owen who is a good athlete and at some point after an injury can virtually do nothing (CNN, 2011).

Epidemiologic injuries on student-athletes happen on a daily basis; in some cases, these incidents are always recorded. The recordings of these incidences always involve taking data of how many students are involved and other important factors such as how often these cases do occur.  

The data on epidemiologic injuries should be taken so that measures are taken on how to curb the injuries in the young children and proper policies are adopted and implemented. It also helps to determine the prevalence of the epidemiologic injuries (Park, 2010). Moreover, this data is useful to lawmakers during the creation of standards for the students who undergo these concussions. It is estimated that 400, 000 cases of head concussions occurred between the years 2005 and 2008 (Park, 2010). Most of these were undertreated. Concussions can cause a lot of damage to the health of students, and therefore the need for data is to help in making laws that would help implement evaluation on students who may have experienced concussions to make them fit to play again. This data is also helpful as it will help medical practitioners to determine schools with high prevalence of concussions; and in doing so they will create a definite manner in which to support these students both academically and health wise. This support will also include the empowerment of students on how to recognize the signs of concussions and how to take measures in order to prevent more damage (Park, 2010). More than two students have testified on having serious illnesses due to concussions and one student has been reported dead due to concussions. Most of these problems arise because of the fact that school leaders have not established laws that protect school players when they encounter concussions. This is one of the goals behind the encouragement of data taking during cases of concussions (Park, 2010).