Gepubliceerd in:
2017 | OriginalPaper | Hoofdstuk
9. Diagnostic and Prognostic Research
Auteurs : L. M. Bouter, G. A. Zielhuis, M. P. A. Zeegers
Uitgeverij: Bohn Stafleu van Loghum
Abstract
This chapter looks at epidemiological research for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Diagnosis and prognosis are two of the basic elements of medicine and paramedicine. The Greek word ‘diagnosis’ means ‘distinction’, and the aim of the diagnostic process is indeed to distinguish between health and disease in individuals, between different diseases that appear similar, or between different stages of a particular condition in patients. The aim of prognosis is to predict the course or outcome of a disease process after the patient has been diagnosed: it is concerned with such questions as the likelihood of cure, of permanent disability or of death within a particular time frame. Both the diagnostic process and prognosis are descriptive in nature and relate to individuals. This is the main difference between this chapter and the other chapters: here we are not interested in explaining things in terms of cause and effect. On that topic we would refer to the chapters on observational and experimental research. This chapter is about describing the likelihood that a particular disease or health outcome is present (diagnosis) or will occur (prognosis) in an individual. Taking it to extremes, if we were to find that the length of the big toe shows whether a person will recover completely from a cerebral infarction, the length of the big toe would have major prognostic value. Whether the length of the big toe is also a causal factor is irrelevant.