Table 4: Some specific epidemiological implications of family medicine related to
the study of incidence rates.
|
Concepts
of family medicine |
|
|
1. The great accessibility of patients |
Access to
the "numerator" |
|
2. Continuity
of care |
Possibility
of retrospective studies
(case-control), prospective (cohort),
clinical trials and
single case studies |
|
3. Working
with a population geographical basis as "denominator" |
Incidence
rates can be known |
|
4. Work
with small geographical base |
Possible
misinterpretations of the incidence
rates and its own epidemiological techniques to manage these sources of error |
|
5. Individual care and community are not alternatives to the assistance given by the family doctor |
What
is traditionally called individual, family and community care (or contextual elements) are the
same reality and cannot be separated |