question

Epidemiology is

answer

concerned with the casual relationships between exposure and diseases, concerned with the causes of diseases and how to cure or control them, and concerned with the frequency and geographic distribution

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An incidence rate is

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the number of new cases in a fixed period of time

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The prevalence (period) rate is

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the number of existing cases in a population over a fixed period of time

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Diseases that are always present in a community, usually at a low, more or less constant frequencies are classified as having a ____ pattern

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endemic

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The epidemiologic triad (triangle) of disease causation refers to

answer

agent, host, environment

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Fluoridation of water would be an example of

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a primary prevention strategy

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During the 19th century, John Snow

answer

proved that cholera was spread through contaminated water by conducting natural experiments

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Mortality is

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the percentage/rate of death caused by a health condition

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Which of the following is not usually an aim of epidemiology

answer

To fund new public health programs

question

During the 20th century, the US experienced a change in the leading cause of death

answer

from primarily infectious diseases to primarily chronic diseases

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Pasteurization of milk

answer

primary prevention passive

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screening for breast cancer

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secondary prevention

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bypass surgery for someone after a heart attack

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tertiary prevention

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an exercise campaign for families and children at an elementary school

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primary prevention active

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immunization against measles

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primary prevention active

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Increases in lung cancer mortality, especially among women, illustrate which of the following trends in disease occurrence

answer

a new epidemic disorder

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Given what we know today and from Epidemiological history, the use of GIS may be thought of as following the heritage of

answer

Snow

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The descriptive epidemiologic variable AGE is related to

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variations in age-specific disease rates, variations in mortality from unintentional injuries, the occurrence of chronic disease, infectious disease incidence in childhood

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increasing the tobacco tax

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policy

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access to quality schools

answer

social

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access to health insurance

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health care

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wearing a seat belt

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lifestyle/behavior

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This person used a natural experiment to understand why women were dying from puerperal fever in his hospital

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Ignaz Semmelweis

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This person was the first to use quantitative means to tell a story about health providing interesting information on causes of deaths and providing the first tables on population growth and life expectancy

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John Graunt

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This person was credited with creating a safer small pox vaccine by using the live virus of cow pox

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Edward Jenner

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This person was the first to verify that an agent or specific organism, caused disease

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Robert Koch

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This person created a new classification system by combining birth, death, and marriage records with census data

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William Farr

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This person was the first to use an experimental study, finding the treatment of scurvy

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James Lind

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This person was the first to use investigative techniques and mapping to find the cause of a disease and prevent further cases

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John Snow

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This person first used a case control study to match patients with lung cancer with patients without lung cancer to determine if smoking was a risk factor for lung cancer

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Doll and Hill

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A null hypothesis is most similar to which of the following?

answer

negative declaration

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An epidemic becomes a pandemic when

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it spreads geographically to other areas of the globe

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Which of the following was not one of the four features notable from the Streptomycin tuberculosis Trial

answer

they pulled people out of the study when they had any negative effects from the treatment

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The Framingham study was notable because it was "the model of cohort research". Why?

answer

the study followed 5000 healthy adults every 2 years for over 50 years, it was considered an excellent study because the investigators could identify a large enough number of people who both had and did not have risk factors for heart disease, the study was so successful it was eventually expanded to include other causes and other diseases

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What are social determinants of health?

answer

a variety of conditions that influence the health of individuals and communities

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increase and decrease in the frequency of diseases over a rapid period of years or within each year

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cyclic fluctuations

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the response of a group of people circumscribed in a place to a common factor to which they were exposed almost simultaneously

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point epidemic

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An unusual aggregation of health events grouped together in a space or time

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case clustering

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an outbreak that lasts longer than the time span of a single incubation period and is caused by a common source of exposure

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continuous common source epidemic

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an outbreak due to exposure of a group of persons to the same noxious influence

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common source epidemic

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Which of the following does not accurately describe one of Koch's postulates on disease?

answer

the microorganisms, once cultured, must produce the same illness in any and every animal that is infected

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According to Hill's Criteria for Causality, which of the following best explains "strength of association"?

answer

the more a person is exposed to the risk factor, the more likely they are to getting sick with the disease

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According to Hill's Criteria for Causality, which of the following best explains "time sequence" or "temporality"?

answer

the person should be exposed to the risk factor before developing the disease

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Which of the following is not one of Mill's four canons?

answer

criteria for causality

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T/F: In current thinking, the term epidemic is used only to describe outbreaks of infectious diseases

answer

false

question

T/F: A dynamic population is one that adds new members through immigration and births and loses members through emigration and deaths

answer

true

question

T/F: the three categories of descriptive epidemiologic variables are person, place, and time

answer

true

question

T/F: marriage is hypothesized to act as either a selective or a protective factor in health

answer

true

question

T/F: pandemics are often due to an antigenic drift in a virus

answer

false

question

T/F: nativity refers to place of origin of an individual

answer

true

question

T/F: when people don't have access to healthier food options, they suffer from obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, eye disease and tooth decay

answer

true

question

T/F: Hollingshead and Redlich found that severe mental illness was more common in the upper than in the lower social classes

answer

false

question

Which of the following explains why "count" measures are misleading

answer

Without a comparison to a population, "count" measures mean very little

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Which of the following indicator generally predicts poor access to prenatal care?

answer

infant mortality rates, low birth weight, maternal mortality rates

question

Which of the following is a reason to track infectious diseases

answer

they are significant cause of illness and death, due to air travel and other modes of transportation infectious diseases can potentially spread faster, infectious diseases are associated with some cancers

question

Which of the following terms is expressed as a simple sex ratio?

answer

male births/female births

question

Which of the following terms is expressed as a proportion

answer

female births/male+female births

question

Before utilizing data for an epidemiologic study, the researcher must first consider the:

answer

nature of the data, availability of the data, completeness of the data, privacy concerns

question

If you wanted to know how hard the flu has hit an area it would be best to look at:

answer

reports of absenteeism from work and school

question

Which of the following is not one of the four criteria for the utility of epidemiologic data?

answer

the reason the data are collected

question

What is one of the widely used sources of statistical data on cancer?

answer

disease registries

question

Which of the following data sources is most likely to provide a representative sample of the general health status of a population?

answer

a morbidity survey of the general population, like the national health interview survey

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What does "attributable risk" measure?

answer

the excess risk that is associated only to the exposure of the risk factor

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A person with an inapparent infection

answer

can transmit the infection to others

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Morbidity surveys of the general population

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include the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, collect the data on the health status of a population group, typically use a scientifically designed representative sample

question

The site where a disease agent enters the body is the:

answer

portal of entry

question

An attack rate is an alternative incidence rate that is used when

answer

describing the occurrence of food-borne illness or infectious diseases, the population at risk increases greatly over a short period of time, the disease rapidly follows the exposure during a fixed time period

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With respect to a hypothetical rabies investigation conducted among veterinary workers, researchers found that rabies was almost always fatal. This finding refers to

answer

virulence

question

When looking at data for an epidemiological event, which of the following factors is not always relevant to consider?

answer

the number of people who were affected the last time there was a similar health event

question

When calculating relative risk, what does a "l" mean?

answer

there is no association between being exposed and developing the disease

question

Vaccinations provide what, to the host?

answer

immunity- active

question

What can proportional mortality ratios tell you?

answer

the relative importance of the specific cause of a death

question

If you wanted to compare the number of boys who experience near-death from drowning in comparison with girls who would use which formula?

answer

simple sex ratio

question

If you wanted to estimate how many more beds need to be offered in a long-term care facility for Alzheimer patients you could use?

answer

incidence rates for Alzheimer for the previous year

question

You are the Public Health Director for a community and need to determine where to send new 'primary prevention' money. You want to direct it to the disease that has the highest need and must choose between heart disease or HIV. What could you use?

answer

prevalence rates for both diseases from the previous year

question

If you wanted to determine if asthma rates for children are greater when they are exposed to secondhand smoke, you would use?

answer

relative risk

question

The incidence of a disease if five times greater in men than in women, but the prevalence shows no sex differences. The most likely explanation is that:

answer

the duration of the disease is greater in women

question

Which of the following would most likely be the cause of an abrupt drop in mortality due to a specific disease from one year to the next?

answer

a change in the International Classification of Disease system

question

When calculating infectivity you are really calculating

answer

how many people get sick out of how many could have potentially gotten sick, the attack rate, the incidence rate

question

T/F: When the duration of a disease becomes short and the incidence is high, the prevalence becomes similar to incidence

answer

true

question

T/F: If a disease is fatal, virulence can be measured by the case fatality rate

answer

true

question

T/F: The presence of an infectious agent is a sufficient cause for outbreaks of infectious disease to occur

answer

false

question

T/F: Vectors can be considered as one way in which infectious diseases can be transmitted

answer

true

question

T/F: Herd immunity refers to protection of a population against an infectious disease when a large proportion of individuals are immune through either vaccinations or past infections

answer

true

question

T/F: Incubation period refers to the time between the start of an infection and the beginning of the period of communicability

answer

false

question

T/F: The incidence of a disease in the population is termed the absolute risk

answer

true

question

T/F: An exposure is the cause of a disease

answer

false

question

Validity means

answer

did the study accurately measure what they said they would measure

question

Which of the following is not a way that observational study designs differs

answer

size of research team

question

Which of the following is an example of a "cohort"?

answer

the people of the town who all experienced the same tragic event, a group of children that all had the same birth year and go through school together, a group of construction workers that all worked on the same project that exposed them to a toxin, a year of students who are all in the same major taking the same classes

question

Which of the following is true about an ecologic study design

answer

since its studies the population or community, the level of exposure for the individual is unknown

question

_____ is a non-casual association between an exposure and outcome due to the influence of a third variable

answer

confounding

question

Practical considerations in the design of cohort studies do not usually include

answer

age of the investigator

question

Temporality means

answer

the timing of information about cause and effect

question

Ecologic studies

answer

are a good approach for generating hypotheses

question

You are investigating the role of physical activity in heart disease and suggest physical activity protects against having a heart attack

answer

is a factor associated with both, physical activity and heart disease

question

Which of the following is an example considered a significant category of infectious disease

answer

sexually transmitted diseases,vaccine preventable diseases, foodborne illness

question

Which of the following is not true about cross-sectional study designs?

answer

good design to determine low (small) prevalence levels

question

Which of the following is considered an advantage (or pro) for using a case study design?

answer

can provide a detailed and timely description of a disease or health outcome, especially if novel

question

Which of the following generally reports odd ratios as their measurement of association?

answer

Retrospective cohort studies

question

What is the primary difference between an observational approach versus an experimental approach

answer

Whether or not the study factor is randomized or not randomized

question

Which of the following best describes the strength of a case-control study

answer

provides a strong design for rare diseases, because generally looks backwards in time it an inexpensive and fast study, can study several exposures at one time, and uses a control group therefore providing a comparison for the findings

question

In a study to determine the incidence of a chronic disease, 150 people were examined at the end of a three-year period. Twelve cases were found, giving a cumulative risk 8%. Fifity people of the initial cohort could not be examined. Which source of bias may have affected the study?

answer

selection bias

question

Which of the following study designs examines a group as the unit of analysis?

answer

ecologic

question

Which of the following best explains "cohort effect"?

answer

the influence of membership in a cohort can explain some of the findings in a study, must be accounted for in order to not have skewed interpretations

question

The Ecologic Fallacy refers to

answer

observations made at the group level don't always represent the experience of the individuals in the study

question

The measure of risk for this study design is the relative risk

answer

cohort (prospective)

question

Which of the following is true about a case-series design

answer

Researchers are allowed to look for correlations between cases so are more likely to be able to formulate a hypothesis

question

An example of passive follow-up in cohort studies is

answer

collection of data maintained by the federal government

question

Which of the following is not an example of random error

answer

selection bias

question

CDC investigators have decided to investigate an outbreak of presumed ecoli. They decide to define their cases with "high sensitivity". What does that mean?

answer

They are "casting a wide net" in order to not overlook any cases, even though that might mean there will be false positives.

question

In a retrospective cohort design, what test would you use to measure the "risk"?

answer

odds ratio

question

A study that selects a population today, looks backwards to verify exposure, and then follows a group into the future is considered to be

answer

historical prospective cohort

question

Which of the following is not an example of a systemic error

answer

cognitive bias

question

A major advantage of cohort studies over case-control studies with respect to the role of a suspected factor (exposure) in the etiology of a disease is that

answer

they permit direct estimation of risk of disease for those who were exposed to the suspected factor

question

What is a "nested case control"?

answer

to control costs when examining a disease with a small incidence rate

question

Most epidemiologic studies are

answer

observational in nature

question

The Framingham Heart Study is an example of

answer

a prospective cohort

question

Which of the following statements about epidemic curves is not true

answer

they can estimate how many more people will get sick and where they will be located

question

There are many diseases that have vaccines to offer protection/boost immunity. These vaccines are often controversial with a small, but vocal group opting out of vaccination. What is the primary reason?

answer

There are concerns that vaccines can lead to other illnesses and that the long-term effects are yet to be understood

question

When calculating odds ratio, what does the "1" mean?

answer

there is no association between being exposed and developing the disease

question

T/F: Biases reflect inadequacies in the design or conduct of a study and potentially affect the validity of the findings

answer

true

question

T/F: A strategy to reduce selection bias is to allow investigators a great deal of flexibility when conducting interviews to obtain the maximum amount of data

answer

true

question

T/F: There are two main categories of validity in a study, internal and external

answer

true

question

T/F: Internal validity means results can be generalized to a larger population or universe

answer

false

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