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But it's not an incorrect usage of the term. Epidemic is not exclusive to contagious conditions.
by andrewfelix 15y ago
But it's not an incorrect usage of the term. Epidemic is not exclusive to contagious conditions.
- ekianjo 15y agoI know. That's why I mentioned clearly "especially for a medical condition" - because then you use a figurative word associated with a medical term, while you would expect in that context the other meaning of "epidemic". If you were talking about "epidemic unemployment" there would be no ambiguity, but "epidemic obesity" is a very improper use of the word, ambiguous in this context. Anyway, most of the time if you use the figurative sense of the word, just replacing it with "growth/increase/spread" is good enough. Why use an overly dramatic word ?
- andrewfelix 15y agoBut it's not incorrect or even unusual in a medical context. Epidemic has often been used for non contagious conditions including diabetes, ADHD and obesity. It's a dramatic word, but the obesity rate in the US is dramatic.