 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss epidemiology. It means that what is the social dimension of health? Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in different populations. Social epidemiology examines the social and cultural factors that contribute to health and disease. So social factors such as poverty, education and access to health care have significant impact on our health outcomes. So the way health is seen in society, in the field of epidemiology, it is important to see that diseases have their own dynamics. It's not that disease is equally distributed among all the classes and among all different groups in the society. The epidemiology of the disease is dependent on different social and cultural factors. For example, it is interesting to see that the lower caste or minority groups or particularly low income groups have more contagious diseases as compared to those who are in high class or people from the higher classes. Social epidemiology is concerned with understanding the social determinants of health and social distribution of disease and the social mechanisms that lead to different health disparities. Examples of social epidemiology in Pakistan include the higher rates of infectious diseases in poor and marginalized communities and its impact of social class on their health outcomes. So as you can see that these conditions which we find around these people from lower income groups, they have deplorable health conditions because of the health and hygiene and the available surrounding for them which is hygienically not good and not comfortable for them. And in addition to that, the access to health care is not available in that way. So interestingly, the spread of disease is concerned with the factors and causes and reasons which we can see that in certain groups, a certain disease is more prevalent as compared to other groups. So food for thought for you for this is that you observe in Pakistan and see for example Malaria or Dengue, so if you compile some statistics regarding this and you can see that there are some social groups in which this disease is more prevalent or this infection is more hospitalized because of this, so it's a food for thought for you.