Which statement is NOT a function of epidemiology?

• A. Identify population segments at greatest risk
• B. Evaluate health programs and services
• C. Provide direct clinical care to individual patients
• D. Determine the relative importance of causes to prioritize research

Answer: (C)

Epidemiology studies health problems at the population level, focusing on how diseases are distributed across groups and what determines that distribution. Its roles include identifying population segments at greatest risk, evaluating how well health programs and services work in real-world settings, and assessing the relative importance of different causes to set research priorities. Providing direct clinical care to individual patients, however, lies outside epidemiology’s scope. Clinicians diagnose and treat individuals, while epidemiology supplies evidence about patterns and determinants that inform those clinical decisions and public health policies. So, while epidemiology can show which risk factors to target and how well programs perform, it does not involve giving direct care to single patients.