how incidence rates work
experts commonly use incidence rates to determine the probability of an outbreak of disease illness or accidents in a given population as such it is commonly used among health experts who often also refer to it as incidence 1 in the case that the incidence rate is not discussing a disease it may cover other topics such as foreclosures or default the rate is typically expressed as the number of cases per person time 1in order to determine the incidence rate of a particular event experts take the number of new cases as a proportion of the population at risk both instances take a specified period of time into consideration 2experts usually take the population at risk from census data they may also study the progress of selected individuals for instance health experts generally conduct studies involving disease in individuals until they either develop the condition die opt out of the group or complete the entire study 1 as mentioned above only new cases are considered which means earlier cases don t apply in the calculation the incidence rate provides experts with a snapshot of changes in the event s progression within a population over time therefore it becomes a very important metric for tracking chronic infectious diseases experts can make comparisons on the probability of disease across different populations or how a financial phenomenon like foreclosure is likely to take place leaders can take action to remedy policies including better regulation or to increase options available to curb negative findings such as health care needs 