Deck 4: Population Health and Social Epidemiology

Question 1

The BMI distribution is positively skewed because relatively few people with ________ BMI skew the distribution to the ________ side.

A) higher; negative
B) higher; positive
C) lower; negative
D) lower; positive

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to the ________, the resources available to the individual ultimately determine how well he or she does.

A) materialist hypothesis
B) psychosocial explanation
C) epidemiological explanation
D) cultural-behavioural hypothesis

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The Whitehall Studies on the determinants of health and disease among British public servants are ________.

A) case-control studies
B) experimental studies
C) cross-sectional studies
D) prospective cohort studies

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The following statement best summarizes Richard Wilkinson's claim: ________.

A) In OECD countries, there are no health disparities
B) Poor countries should redistribute their wealth across population more equally to improve population health
C) More unequal countries were healthier places
D) Differences in health, life expectancy, and causes of disease and disability, between places, times, and social groups were much larger than had been previously expected

Question 5

The ________ focuses on the idea of resources available to the individual and includes the effects of a range of communal and public resources, as well as tax policy.

A) materialist hypothesis
B) psychosocial explanation
C) neo-materialist hypothesis
D) epidemiological explanation

Question 6

Social epidemiology ________.

A) relies on the host-agent model
B) examines how social position and context influence human health
C) studies genetic variations in population
D) is concerned with socialism

Question 7

The following is NOT one of the features of social epidemiology: ________.

A) It takes a population-level perspective
B) It concerns itself with the social context of behaviour
C) It focuses on biological factors that shape social patterning of behaviour
D) It relies on multi-level analysis

Question 8

One of the major assumptions of social epidemiology is that ________.

A) biology changes social relations
B) human behaviour is largely determined by social context
C) host-agent model can determine how health and diseases spread in society
D) age, gender, and genetics are the main predictors of population health

Question 9

According to Geoffrey Rose, important health attributes such as blood pressure, height, or weight are ________.

A) universal features of human biology
B) not points on a distribution but rather categorical things
C) "normal" only in the sense that they lay in the common range of values for the population of which one is a member
D) the key determinants of health and disease

Question 10

Based on Rose's assertions, we can infer that if the average BMI goes up in a place, then ________.

A) the number of people with high BMI, the obese, will also go up
B) the number of people with high BMI, the obese, will go down
C) the number of people with high BMI, the obese, will still remain the same
D) there is a statistical error that crept into our calculations

Question 11

Population means are important to health promotion strategies because ________.

A) they predict the number of cases in the "tail" of the distribution
B) they show the direction of change in important indicators like obesity
C) they indicate what is normal for human populations
D) they identify those who are at low risk of disease

Question 12

To maximize health benefit, disease prevention efforts are best targeted at ________.

A) the whole population
B) high risk individuals
C) the whole population with special attention to at risk groups
D) vulnerable populations

Question 13

The major conclusion of the Whitehall I study is that ________.

A) there were no meaningful differences found between the health status of employees in higher- and lower-status jobs
B) health differences found between the employees in lower-status and higher-status jobs can be explained by the health harming behaviours of lower-paid employees, predominantly smoking and lack of exercise
C) health differences found between the lower-paid and higher-paid employees can be explained by cultural differences
D) employees in more highly paid, higher-status jobs enjoyed better health than workers in lower-salary positions

Question 14

The Whitehall studies provide conclusive evidence of __________.

A) the role of stress in disease
B) the importance of risk factors such as high blood pressure
C) the impact of the risk of unemployment on health
D) the social gradient in health

Question 15

The gradient in health refers to ________.

A) the major disparities in health between the rich and the poor
B) the graded association between income, education, and health, where each higher level of income and education is associated with positive change in health status
C) the effects of stress on different segments of society
D) the differences in health status between poor locations and rich ones

Question 16

The following statement about the Black report is FALSE: ________.

A) The Black report showed that the death rate of men in the lowest social class was more than two-fold greater than the death rate of men in the highest social class
B) The Black report found a gradient in health
C) The Black report showed that the gap between the rich and the poor was growing
D) The Black report disproved the findings from the Whitehall studies

Question 17

The main conclusion that can be drawn from Richard Wilkinson's argument is that health and life expectancy are determined by one's ________.

A) absolute income
B) genetic endowment
C) social position
D) family interactions

Question 18

The gradient in health is usually expressed in terms of differences in ________.

A) neighbourhood
B) religion
C) gender
D) income

Question 19

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a group of the ________.

A) 32 most affluent countries
B) 32 poorest countries
C) 16 most affluent and 16 poorest countries
D) 32 most unhealthy societies

Question 20

Materialist and neo-materialist hypotheses differ from psychosocial ones in that materialist hypotheses ________.

A) focus on the emotional resources available to the person
B) emphasize the nature of relationships among groups in society
C) assume the biggest differences in health status derive from different levels of access to resources required for healthy living
D) offer a plausible model of how social variables influence biology based on the science of stress

Question 21

According to the psychosocial theory, socially induced stress significantly impairs one's capacity to cope with challenges.

Question 22

According to social epidemiology, it matters not only if you are poor, but for how long you have been poor and at what stage of life you became poor.

Question 23

One of the reasons that Rose promoted an individual-level risk factors approach to population health is because it addresses the root causes of disease.

Question 24

By looking at the association between the risk of smoking and lung cancer for the entire population, we can accurately calculate the risk of lung cancer for each single smoker in this population.

Question 25

The Whitehall Studies showed that employees in lower-rank and lower-paid positions smoked more and exercised less than employees in higher-paid and higher-ranked positions.

Question 26

The Whitehall Studies showed that the health disparities between higher-ranked, higher-paid employees and lower-ranked, lower-paid employees can be directly attributed to the differences in smoking and exercise rates among those two groups.

Question 27

The Black report found that the gap in life expectancy between lower-income and higher-income individuals in the United Kingdom has been steadily closing since 1950s.

Question 28

Richard Wilkinson's statements about the causes of health disparities in rich countries are not applicable to the poorer countries.

Question 29

According to psychosocial hypothesis, stress arising from the individual's perception of their position in society ultimately drives her or his health status, either directly by affecting biological functions or indirectly by influencing behaviours like smoking, overeating, and alcohol consumption.

Question 30

What are the major features of social epidemiology? Briefly describe each.

Question 31

What are Rose's two paradoxes?

Question 32

What is one of the criticisms levelled by Rose against the individual-level approach?

Question 33

In your community, there is a high level of injuries among teens. According to Geoffrey Rose, what should you do?

Question 34

What were the major conclusions of the Whitehall I study?

Question 35

Describe the emergence of social epidemiology, its postulates and major assumptions, and the key contributions that were made to this field.

Question 36

Describe Geoffrey Rose's work. Discuss his major conclusions and the criticisms of the individual-level approach to population health. Use examples.

Question 37

What are the major conclusions that can be drawn from the Whitehall Studies and the Black report? What can we learn about population health from these studies?