Analytic epidemiology aims to:

• A. To describe the frequency of disease in a population
• B. To demonstrate causality between independent and dependent variables; identify factors that increase or decrease risk; quantify risk; answer how and why; actual experiments conducted
• C. To measure prevalence only
• D. To perform basic laboratory experiments

Answer: (B)

Analytic epidemiology is about testing hypotheses that link exposures to diseases to determine causes and how big the effects are. It aims to demonstrate causality between an exposure and an outcome, identify factors that raise or lower risk, and quantify that risk so we can say how much an exposure changes the likelihood of disease. This approach also seeks to answer how and why events occur, often using study designs that can test these relationships, including experimental trials and well-designed observational studies.

Descriptive epidemiology, by contrast, describes how often disease occurs and how it’s distributed in a population (who, where, when, and how the disease appears). That’s why options that focus on describing frequency or measuring prevalence don’t capture the analytic goal. Laboratory experiments can be informative but aren’t the defining aim of analytic epidemiology, which is about evaluating relationships and causality in populations.