DISCUSS THE HISTORICAL APPLICATION OF STATISTICS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH CARE HLT 362
DISCUSS THE HISTORICAL APPLICATION OF STATISTICS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH CARE HLT 362
Topic 1 DQ 1
Discuss the historical application of statistics in the field of health care. Describe an example, other than Florence Nightingale’s contributions, where statistical application has greatly influenced or changed health care operations or practice.
REPLY TO DISCUSSION
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Health Statistics provide information for understanding, monitoring, improving, and planning the use of resources to improve people’s lives, provide services and promote their well-being. Statistics are used in healthcare for research, quality improvement, inequalities in healthcare, risk analysis, inventory management and cost, resource utilization, patient length of stay, patient satisfaction, clinical trials, morbidity and mortality, effects of new treatments, measuring change, laboratory analysis, education, and much more.
Statistics have been utilized in healthcare since at least the 19th century. Florence Nightingale used a statistical approach to decrease the mortality rate of British troops in Crimea. Her meticulous records were a key to present-day statistical quality measurement, and she was an innovator in the collection, tabulation, interpretation, and graphical display of descriptive statistics. She named her visual data display a “Coxcomb,” known today as a pie- chart (Sheingold & Hahn, 2014). Clara Barton applied the same analysis in the United States during the Civil War.
Louis Pasteur applied statistics in his research of microbes and the “germ theory” to create penicillin. This evidence led to the wide-scale adoption of antiseptic practices by physicians and hospitals throughout Europe and eventually in the U.S. Pasteur’s research also led to the development of “pasteurization,” which utilizes heat to destroy harmful microbes in perishable food while leaving the food undamaged (Sheingold & Hahn, 2014).
Dr. Rupert Blue was responsible for providing leadership in America during the worst disease outbreak in U.S. history. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed fifty (50) million or 1/5 of the world’s population, representing more people than died during World War I. During the Influenza Pandemic, Dr. Blue’s quality tools were quarantine, mandatory medical exams for all immigrants entering the country, communication in the form of weekly newsletters that contained information about the latest outbreaks, and the results of influenza research conducted at the Hygienic Laboratory which continues to exist today (Sheingold & Hahn, 2014).
The medical records during the 1918 influenza pandemic inform how we should respond to a similar widespread outbreak of biological disease and provide data on the long-term effects of the flu on a pregnant woman.
Reference:
Sheingold, B. H., Hahn, J. A. (2014). The history of healthcare quality: The first 100 years 1860- 1960. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences. Vol. 1. Pages 18 – 22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2014.05.00
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Hi Irene,
In 1992, Anderson and May published Infectious Disease of Humans, documenting their work in mathematical modeling transmission of infectious diseases, which was critically important to understanding the ongoing work in fighting the global HIV epidemic, as well as malaria and tuberculosis. Subsequent work on modeling diseases has been used to monitor and model the impact of influenza outbreaks. During the 1990s, laboratory techniques improved enough so that strains of viruses could be mapped and links made to the epidemiologic investigation.
Reference:
Anderson RM, May RM. Infectious diseases of humans: dynamics and control. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1992.
- CD
Claudia Delgado Lugo
replied toIrene Igbinosa
Aug 19, 2022, 7:27 AM
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Irene,
In 1946 the CDC was established. At this time, they borrowed statistic methods that were established by Florence Nightingale and Edwin Chadwick who had established these while studying sanitary measures in London (Donna F. Stroup & Rob Lyerla, 2011). Along with William Farr who was analyzing death rates, Karl Pearson was studying goodness-of-fit and correlation methods, and Bradford Hill developing the guidelines for establishing casual relationships. During the 1950’s, the CDC focused on the work of sanitarians and lab scientists. Soon, they began to study outbreaks of disease.
Donna F. Stroup, P., & Rob Lyerla, P. (2011, October 7). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Retrieved from CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6004a7.htm
