AlphaMED Resources · https://alphamedicine.uk/Resources/glossary/incidence-prevalence
Incidence vs prevalence
Incidence and prevalence both measure how common a condition is, but incidence counts only new cases.
Summary
- Incidence is the number of new cases of a disease in a group of people during a set period.
- Prevalence is how common a condition is in a population, at one point in time or over a period. It counts new and existing cases together.
- A condition that lasts for years can have a high prevalence even when few new cases appear each year.
Interview questions
- How would you explain a rise in the number of people living with a disease?
- A news story says cases of a disease have doubled. What would you want to know?
- Why do public health teams track both figures?
Sources
How to answer these is in the course
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More NHS hot topics, medical ethics case studies and medical school interview questions are in AlphaMED Resources, which we add to and update through the application cycle.