What is a role of statistics in public health?

• A. Provide clinical treatment to patients
• B. Enforce laws and regulations
• C. Develop marketing strategies
• D. Collect data about the population and calculate risks

Answer: (D)

Statistics in public health is used to collect data about populations and quantify risks. By gathering health information across groups, it lets us describe how common diseases are, who is affected, and how health patterns shift over time. This helps reveal disparities and priorities for action. It also provides methods to estimate how likely certain outcomes are and to measure the strength of associations between exposures and diseases, through measures like incidence, prevalence, risk ratios, and confidence intervals. With this information, public health officials can plan, allocate resources, and evaluate programs. Activities like providing clinical treatment, enforcing laws, or developing marketing strategies operate outside the primary role of statistics in public health.