Which of the following best defines epidemiology and distinguishes it from etiology?

A statistical field dedicated only to calculating rates and proportions without assessing causes, patterns, or applications to public health policy and practice.

A clinical specialty focused on the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients suffering from infectious diseases, with little emphasis on cause or population-level patterns.

The study of distribution, patterns, and determinants of health and disease in populations, a broader discipline that includes etiology (the study of causes) as one component.

A laboratory-based discipline that identifies cellular mechanisms of disease and focuses primarily on molecular causes of infections rather than population patterns and public health interventions.