HLTH 503 Final

HLTH 503 Final

HLTH 503 Final Exam

1. True or False? John Snow is credited with developing the smallpox vaccination.
2. True or False? Socrates popularized the notion that the environment is associated with human disease.
3. True or False? Most of the time, epidemiologic researchers confront a problem that has a clear etiologic basis.
4. True or False? An important risk factor for the population is always important for the individual.
5. What factors should be considered in measuring long-term changes in disease frequency over time?
6. Increases in lung cancer mortality, especially among women, illustrate which of the following trends in disease occurrence?
7. The uses of epidemiology include:
8. An epidemiologic survey of roller-skating injuries in Metroville, a city with a population of 100,000 (during the midpoint of the year), produced the following data for a particular year: The cause-specific mortality rate from roller-skating was:
9. True or False? The point prevalence of a disease is defined as the number of persons ill divided by the total number in the group at a point in time.
10. Successful treatment programs that would shorten the duration of a disease primarily affect:
11. True or False? Calculation of the standardized mortality ratio is an example of the direct method of age adjustment.
12. True or False? WHO is a major source of information about worldwide international variations in rates of disease.
13. Descriptive epidemiology has the following characteristics (Choose the incorrect option):
14. True or False? Developmental problems such as congenital birth defects occur primarily late in life.
15. A null hypothesis is most similar to which of the following?
16. Choose the correct answer. Clinical data sources include:
17. True or False? Health insurance statistics provide a generally representative picture of the health status of the United States population.
18. The Vital Statistics Registration System in the U.S. collects data on all vital events including:
19. True or False? An ecologic comparison study is sometimes called a cross-sectional ecologic study.
20. Examples of exposure data in ecologic studies include:
21. Case-control studies are among the best observational designs to study diseases of:
22. Cohort study is to risk ratio as:
23. Subjects for an exposure-based cohort study would be selected most appropriately from:
24. An example of passive follow-up in cohort studies is:
25. True or False? Clinical trials enroll individual subjects and enable randomization of subjects to receive or not receive the intervention.
26. True or False? Intervention designs involve only controlled clinical trials.
27. Identify which of the following six types of study designs most appropriately characterizes the situation described below.
    You would like to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of delivering health services through your clinic. After selecting a 10% sample of all patient visits during the past six months, you are able to characterize the patient population who used your clinic in terms of age, race, sex, method of referral, diagnostic category, therapy provided, method of payment, daily patient load, and clinic staff work schedules.
28. The death rate per 100,000 for lung cancer is 7 among non-smokers and 71 among smokers. The death rate per 100,000 for coronary thrombosis is 422 among non-smokers and 599 among smokers. The prevalence of smoking in the population is 55%. The relative risk of dying for a smoker compared to a non-smoker is: [Refer to the chapter titled “Study Designs: Cohort Studies”]
29. The population etiologic fraction is a measure of the proportion of the disease rate in a population attributable to the exposure of interest. This measure of effect is influenced by:
30. True or False? The term attributable risk is defined as the ratio of the incidence of a disease among exposed individuals to the incidence among non-exposed individuals.
31. You are investigating the role of physical activity in heart disease and suggest that physical activity protects against having a heart attack. While presenting these data to your colleagues, someone asks if you have thought about confounders such as factor X. This factor X could have confounded your interpretation of the data if it:
32. An epidemiologic experiment is performed in which one group is exposed to a suspected factor and the other is not. All individuals with an odd hospital admission number are assigned to the second group. The main purpose of this procedure is to:
33. 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 of 8%. Fifty other members of the initial cohort could not be examined; 20 of these 50 could not be examined because they died. Which source of bias may have affected the study?
34. A test that determines whether disease is actually present is a:
35. A new blood test has been developed to screen for disease Z. Researchers establish 50 units as a cut point above which a test is considered positive and thereby indicative of disease. The test manufacturers determine that the test’s sensitivity is unacceptably low. However, the manufacturers are not concerned with the specificity and do not want the cost of the test to rise. How can they improve the sensitivity of the test?
36. A new antibody test detects serum antibodies against virus X (sensitivity 99%, specificity 90%). When applied in a group of hospitalized patients diagnosed as having virus X infections, the test is found to have a positive predictive value of 85%. When used to screen a group of healthy blood donors for virus X infections, the test is found to have a positive predictive value of 30%. Which of the following best explains this difference between the positive predictive values?
37. True or False? It is possible for a measure to be valid but unreliable.
38. True or False? Antigenicity of an infectious agent is measured by the secondary attack rate.
39. True or False? Vaccine preventable diseases include Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).
40. An outbreak of salmonellosis occurred after an epidemiology department luncheon, which was attended by 485 faculty and staff. Assume everyone ate the same food items. Sixty-five people had fever and diarrhea, five of these people were severely affected. Subsequent laboratory tests on everyone who attended the luncheon revealed an additional 72 cases. The ratio of severe cases to other clinically apparent cases was:
41. Attack rate is:
42. It has been suggested that occupational exposure to benzene in the petroleum industry increases the risk of developing leukemia. The levels of benzene to which workers in this industry have been exposed were high from 1940 to 1970, but since 1970 have been significantly reduced. What kind of study design, using petroleum workers, would provide the most useful information on whether benzene affects incidence rates of leukemia in this industry? You may assume that records of individual worker assignments to jobs involving benzene exposure have been maintained by the industry.
43. The lowest dose at which a particular response may occur:
44. Asbestos exposure has been associated with:
45. Which of the following statements describes the person-environment fit model?
46. Examples of social incongruity include:
47. Social epidemiology deals with the health effects of:
48. The Epidemiology Monitor is a newsletter that lists employment opportunities in national and international locations.
49. The American College of Epidemiology (ACE) has developed a framework for ethical principles in epidemiology.
50. According to The Association of Schools of Public Health, competencies in epidemiology to be achieved by Master of Public Health degree candidates in public health include: