Final answer:
The process of identifying risk factors and then determining the best way to handle them is known as risk assessment. Risk assessment is significant in public health and epidemiology for evaluating the likelihood of negative health outcomes and establishing effective prevention strategies.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that describes the process of identifying risk factors and then determining the best way to handle them is risk assessment. This process is crucial in various fields, including public health, epidemiology, and medicine. In public health, risk assessment involves evaluating the probability that a negative health event will occur and what factors contribute to its likelihood. This is commonly done through comparing disease frequencies and risk factors in case-control studies or cohort studies, and calculating the relative risk or the risk difference between exposed and unexposed groups.
For example, in cohort studies, epidemiologists calculate the relative risk by dividing the incidence of a health-related event in the group that was exposed to the risk factor by the incidence in the group that was not exposed. In addition to epidemiological studies, risk assessment is also important in understanding the multifactorial aspects of diseases, such as heart disease, which may involve multiple genes and lifestyle factors. Furthermore, interventions such as lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the risk of noninfectious diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancers.
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