In Descriptive Studies, the epidemiologist is concerned with collecting information that characterizes and summarizes a health event or health problem.

Routinely collected data from such sources as death certificates, hospital discharge records, health surveys (e.g., cross-sectional surveys) and disease surveillance programs are used for most descriptive studies.

Characteristics related to “person” may include age, gender, race, ethnicity,marital status, socioeconomic class and occupation.

Descriptive studies on occurrence of conditions according to place might involve examining their frequency within or between natural or political boundaries, urban versus rural localities, or latitude.