What is Incidence - Meaning and definition

Published by Roberto Wenk. Last updated date: July 5, 2016.

The number of new cases of a condition, symptom, death, or injury that develops in a specific area during a specific time period.
Often reported as the number of cases per 100,000 people.

Adapted from AIDSinfo. Glossary. Internet. Accessed on July 5, 2016.

Published by Roberto Wenk. Reviewed by Alison Ramsey. Last updated date: January 7, 2019.

Incidence quantifies the number of new events or cases of disease that develop in a population of individuals at risk during a specified time interval.
This is an estimate of the probability that a patient in a given population at risk will develop the condition during a specified period of time. For example, the incidence of bowel obstruction in a population of patients with colorectal cancer followed for 30 months from the date of diagnosis.

Incidence can be summarized as:
Number of new cases / total population at risk

Sand MB, Piza M, Ingham JM. The epidemiology of end-of-life experience. Hanks G, Cherny NI, Christakis NA, Fallon M, Kaasa S, Portenoy RK (Ed).Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2010. pp. 58-80.

Incidence

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