What term describes the number of new cases of a condition within a specific timeframe?

The term that describes the number of new cases of a condition within a specific timeframe is "incidence." Incidence specifically measures the rate of new occurrences of a disease or condition in a population at risk over a designated period. For instance, if a researcher reports that there were 50 new cases of a disease within a year in a population of 1,000 people, they are referring to the incidence rate.

Understanding incidence is crucial for public health and epidemiology because it helps to assess the risk of contracting a condition and informs strategies for disease prevention and control. This differs from prevalence, which indicates the total number of cases (both new and existing) at a given point in time, morbidity, which relates to the incidence of diseases and their effects on individuals, and mortality, which pertains to the number of deaths caused by a condition.