WANI Dictionary

Prevalence

Prevalence refers to the proportion of samples with a particular trait of interest.

For example, prevalence of a disease is the proportion of people with the disease in a given poputation at a specific time or over a time period.

Definitions in the literature

• The number of people with a disease or condition in a given population at a specific time, either a point in time (point prevalence) or over a period of time (period prevalence) [1].