Epidemiology of polytrauma

Abstract

Epidemiology is the study of health and disease in populations, the scientific approach typifying public health medicine. The paradigms are somewhat different from the reductionist approach of much clinical science, which seeks to understand disease processes at an omic level. The rationale that underpins epidemiology suggests that effective disease control must begin and end by understanding the impact of a disease (and its prevention/management strategies) at a population level - globally, nationally, and locally - including the identification of vulnerable groups, etiological factors, and societal costs. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.