ABSTRACT
We begin by describing our orientation and the scope and aims of this chapter. Our perspective is that of psychosocial epidemiology, that is, the interdisciplinary domain of investigations dealing with social and psychological risk factors for health and disease outcomes in the population. These psychosocial risk factors can influence:
Incidence: new cases of a disease in a defined population, initially free of the disease, within a specified period of time.
Recurrence: development of additional episodes of a disease, among the incident cases, within a specified period of time.
Case Fatality: the proportion of cases of a disease who die within a specified period of time.
Cause Specific or Total Mortality: deaths over a specified period of time in a cohort not selected for presence or absence of disease at baseline.
The above are the major outcomes in population epidemiology. Within the framework of clinical epidemiology, psychosocial risk factors can also be examined as influences on the recovery process, the rate at which a person achieves functional recovery or becomes symptom free.