In current use, incidence usually means "rate of occurrence" and is often qualified in some way ("a high incidence of bear sightings"). Incident usually refers to a particular event, often something unusual or unpleasant ("many such incidents go unreported").
Incidence should not be confused with prevalence, which is the proportion of cases in the population at a given time rather than rate of occurrence of new cases.
Incidence definition: the rate or range of occurrence or influence of something, especially of something unwanted.. See examples of INCIDENCE used in a sentence.
Definition of incidence noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
Offering a helpful definition of incidence in epidemiology, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) describes this as the "number of cases of disease having their onset during a prescribed period of time."
Measuring incidence may be complicated because the population at risk for the disease may change during the period of interest due to births, deaths, or migration, for example.
Incidence specifies the number of new diagnoses for the at-risk population of a disease. Changing the specified population will also change the incidence. For example, the incidence of stroke is approximately 250/100,000 people-year for all individuals in the United States.
incidence, in epidemiology, occurrence of new cases of disease, injury, or other medical conditions over a specified time period, typically calculated as a rate or proportion.
incidence, in epidemiology, occurrence of new cases of disease, injury, or other medical conditions over a specified time period, typically calculated as a rate or proportion.