Deck 4: The Health and Mortality Transition

Question 1

With respect to longevity, it is accurate to say that

A) it is measured by the concept of life span.
B) about 25 percent of the variability is due to inherited characteristics.
C) about 50 percent of the variability is due to economic factors.
D) the single most important element in variability is your outlook on life.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Of the following characteristics, ________ is least predictive of low levels of mortality.

A) higher social status rather than lower
B) urban rather than rural residence
C) higher rather than lower levels of education
D) being married rather than divorced

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In its broadest terms, the decline in mortality over the past 200 years has been due primarily to

A) improved medical care.
B) higher-quality water and better sewerage.
C) vaccinations against infectious disease.
D) control over the environment.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The basic lesson of the declines in mortality over time from one country to another is that

A) a high standard of living is required to bring down the death rate.
B) curing disease is more important than preventing disease.
C) the larger the country, the easier it is to reduce mortality.
D) there are many ways by which low mortality may be achieved.

Question 5

Throughout most of human history, the major causes of death have been related to

A) infectious diseases.
B) pregnancy-related diseases.
C) smoking.
D) injuries.

Question 6

The most important "real" causes of death in the United States are related to

A) tobacco use.
B) drug and alcohol misuse.
C) diet and activity patterns.
D) microbial agents.

Question 7

World War II was a turning point in world mortality decline because it

A) taught the world the value of human life.
B) created new ways of coping with violent death.
C) led to the development of the germ theory.
D) led to the spread of death control technology around the world.

Question 8

Of the following statistical concepts, the _______ is not directly used to calculate life expectancy.

A) age-specific death rate
B) age-adjusted death rate
C) probability of dying between two different ages
D) number of years lived

Question 9

In a low-mortality society such as the United States, the principal causes of death are related to

A) stress-induced diseases.
B) pregnancy-related diseases.
C) noncommunicable conditions.
D) homicides and other injuries.

Question 10

The planned obsolescence theory of human aging suggests that

A) we undergo a process of senescence as we age.
B) our bodies are like machines that wear out.
C) our cells have a built-in time clock that eventually stops.
D) there is a high probability of Alzheimer's if we live long enough.

Question 11

At which of the following ages does the average human has the highest risk of death?

A) 0
B) 1
C) 5
D) 15

Question 12

The basic lesson of the nutrition transition concept is that

A) you are what you eat.
B) Americanization is bad for your health.
C) diets must adapt to circumstances.
D) being fat is healthier now than it used to be.

Question 13

The most dramatic increases in life expectancy since the end of World War II have occurred in

A) Africa.
B) Asia.
C) Latin America.
D) Europe.

Question 14

For most of human history, up to the modern era, life expectancy was probably about ______ years.

A) 20-30
B) 30-40
C) 40-50
D) 50-60

Question 15

Each of the following except _______ influenced the decline of mortality in the United States prior to World War II.

A) improved diet
B) better hygiene
C) availability of penicillin
D) availability of smallpox vaccinations

Question 16

At which of the following ages does the average human has the lowest risk of death?

A) 0.
B) 1.
C) 5.
D) 15.

Question 17

The health and mortality transition does not typically involve a

A) shift in deaths from the younger to the older ages.
B) greater control over the natural environment.
C) shift in causes of death from communicable to degenerative.
D) permanently greater variability in the ages at which people die.

Question 18

Life expectancy during the Roman era was probably little more than ___ years.

A) 20
B) 30
C) 40
D) 50

Question 19

When life expectancy is 30, about ___ percent of children die before their fifth birthday, compared to ___ percent when life expectancy is 80.

A) 40; 2
B) 50; 5
C) 50; 10
D) 60; 10

Question 20

The oldest verified age to which a human has ever lived is just over ____ years.

A) 100
B) 110
C) 120
D) 130

Question 21

What are the possible explanations for the apparent biological regularity that women live longer than men? How is the social world affected by this difference?

Question 22

Life expectancy in the United States is now twice what it was 150 years ago.

Question 23

Discuss how different the world of the twenty-first century would be if (1) death rates had not declined as they did in the first part of the twentieth century; and (2) if World War II had not happened.

Question 24

Life expectancy in Mexico currently lags well behind that in the United States and Canada.

Question 25

Given the current world averages, an infant mortality rate of 50 deaths per 1,000 live births would be considered low.

Question 26

What are the ways in which society is going to have to change in order to ward off the potentially fatal side effects of the nutrition transition?

Question 27

In general, life expectancy is lower for married persons than it is for single or divorced persons.

Question 28

Although causes of death are neatly categorized, we know that there are complex reasons for many deaths. Discuss some of those complexities and what they reveal about the many different routes to low mortality for a population as a whole.

Question 29

Life expectancy and life span both refer to the highest age to which humans can expect to live.

Question 30

The available evidence suggests that the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 actually erupted first in the West African country of Sierra Leone.

Question 31

In human and many non-human animal populations, females have a biological survival advantage over men.

Question 32

The crude death rate is called "crude" because it does not take into account the age and sex distribution of the population.

Question 33

Medical advances were the main reason for the decline of mortality in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Question 34

The plague disappeared from Europe at about the time that the Industrial Revolution was getting started.

Question 35

What changes do you think would have to be made in American society to eliminate the social and economic differences in disease and mortality that we currently observe? Would universal health coverage make a difference? Why or why not?