ABSTRACT
The descriptive work always starts with a list of cases which is usually entered into a spreadsheet programme, or into one of the programmes especially designed for epidemiological analysis. Alternatively, the list of cases may be imported from some pre-existing registry. The two standard categories in the descriptive epidemiology are sex and age. Age distribution is usually given in intervals, but one of the annoying failures of the world's population of epidemiologists is our lack of agreement on appropriate age intervals. Since an epidemiologist always wants to break down the data in different categories of age and of sex, there is a joke saying that 'an epidemiologist is someone broken down by sex and age'. The most important issue when presenting the result of the descriptive epidemiology is to be succinct and truthful at the same time–as is of course the case with any statistical analysis. Some simple statistical calculations are also part of the descriptive epidemiology.
