Deck 2: Environmental Epidemiology

Question 1

Which of the following are contributions of epidemiology to environmental health?

A) Concern with populations
B) Use of observational data
C) Methodology for study designs
D) Descriptive and analytic studies
E) All of these are correct.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

The Texas Sharpshooter Effect illustrates:

A) a new insect pest that is invading the southwest.
B) a description of disease according to person variables.
C) a description of disease according to etiologic factors.
D) one cause of spurious or chance clustering.
E) None of these is correct.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Environmental health science is concerned with agent, host, and environmental factors in disease (the epidemiologic triangle). Which statement is true about the triangle?

A) Agent factors can include particles, toxic chemicals, and pesticides.
B) The environment is the domain in which disease-causing agents may exist.
C) The host is the person who affords lodgment of an infectious agent.
D) Disease causality includes three major factors: agent, host, and environment.
E) All of these are correct.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Sir Percival Pott, who wrote Chirurgical Observations:

A) was the father of modern biostatistics.
B) established postulates for transmission of infectious disease.
C) was an English anesthesiologist who used natural experiments.
D) argued that the environment was associated with diseases such as malaria.
E) was a London surgeon who identified an environmental cause of cancer.

Question 5

Which of the following historical figures was among the first to expound on the role of environmental factors in causing diseases?

A) Sir Percival Pott
B) John Snow
C) Hippocrates
D) K. J. Rothman
E) Socrates

Question 6

Prevalence measures aid in:

A) assessing variations in disease occurrence.
B) the development of hypotheses.
C) determining the risk of disease.
D) describing the scope of health problems.
E) assessing variations in disease occurrence, the development of hypotheses, and describing the scope of health problems.

Question 7

A national survey of asthma conducted on May 1, 2012, obtained the following results for the state of Oklahoma:
X = The number of residents with asthma
Y = The population of the state on June 30, 2012, and all members of the population were considered at risk
Z = The number of new cases of asthma diagnosed during 2012.
The incidence rate of asthma during 2012 (per 100,000) would be expressed as:

A) (X/Y) × 100,000.
B) (Z/X) × 100,000.
C) (Z/Y) × 100,000.
D) (X/Z) × 100,000.
E) None of these is correct.

Question 8

What term is normally used to describe the aggregation of relatively uncommon events or diseases?

A) Grouping
B) Clustering
C) Sampling
D) Randomizing

Question 9

Which of the following is a study in which the units of analysis are populations or groups of people rather than individuals?

A) Case-control studies
B) Ecologic studies
C) Cross-sectional studies
D) Case series study

Question 10

What type of study design classifies subjects according to their exposure to a factor of interest and then observes them over time to document the occurrence of new cases of disease or other health events?

A) Cohort study
B) Case series study
C) Case-control study
D) Cross-sectional study

Question 11

The use of what measure as a study endpoint has several advantages, including the fact that it may be relevant to agents that have a subtle effect over a long time period?

A) Incidence
B) Prevalence
C) Mortality
D) Morbidity

Question 12

According to Hill's Criteria of Causality, what criterion suggests that the cause and effect interpretation of our data should not seriously conflict with the generally known facts of the natural history and biology of disease?

A) Coherence
B) Plausibility
C) Temporality
D) Specificity

Question 13

Used in cohort studies, the relative risk is a measure of the strength of association between a possible risk factor and a disease.

Question 14

Cross-sectional studies may be used to formulate hypotheses that can be followed up in analytic studies.

Question 15

In a case-control study, cases are those who have the outcome of interest and the controls are those who do not.

Question 16

A relative risk of less than 1 means that there is no association between exposure and outcome.