Deck 2: Changing Encounters With Death

Question 1

Death rates

A) indicate how long a typical person in a society is likely to live
B) are inversely related to the number of deaths that occurred in a specific society
C) reflect the number of people in a specific group who die during a particular time period
D) all of these
E) none of these

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Death rates in the United States are or have been lowest for

A) males in 1900
B) males in 2007
C) females in 1900
D) females in 2007
E) none of these

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The overall, age-adjusted death rate for the United States in 2007

A) reached a record-low historical figure
B) represented a decrease of 2.1 percent from the 2006 rate
C) was 760.2 deaths per 100,000 standard population
D) all of these
E) none of these

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In 1900 overall death rates for infants (newborns and children under 1 year of age) in the United States were

A) roughly equal to those similar rates in 2007
B) approximately 10 times higher than similar rates in 2007
C) 17 times higher than similar rates in 2007
D) nearly 24 times higher than similar rates in 2007
E) nearly 50 times higher than similar rates in 2007

Question 5

In the United States in 1900,

A) death rates were significantly higher than they are today
B) women had higher death rates than males
C) members of lower socioeconomic classes tended on average to have lower death rates than members of middle and upper socioeconomic classes in our society
D) children had lower death rates than they do today
E) parents seldom experienced the death of a child

Question 6

Average life expectancy

A) is originally and most rapidly increased by decreasing the number of deaths in the early years of life
B) is inversely correlated with death rates
C) is exceeded by some individuals and not achieved by others
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 7

From 1900 to 2007 in the United States, overall death rates

A) decreased by about 25 percent
B) decreased by over 50 percent
C) increased by approximately 10 percent
D) increased by about 30 percent
E) none of these

Question 8

Encounters with death can be studied by looking at

A) death rates
B) average life expectancy
C) deaths caused by communicable diseases
D) dying trajectories
E) all of these

Question 9

During the year 2007 in the United States, there were

A) more than 2.4 million deaths
B) just over 1.6 million deaths
C) nearly 10 million deaths
D) approximately 5 million deaths
E) 188 million deaths

Question 10

In the United States, average life expectancy

A) is likely to continue to increase at the same rate it did in the early parts of the 20^th century
B) increased more rapidly between 1950 and 1999 than it did between 1900 and 1950
C) increased throughout the twentieth century primarily due to advances in medical technology
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 11

In the United States in 2007, the deaths of 548 pregnant women and women in the process of giving birth or immediately after childbirth led to a maternal mortality rate of

A) 3.3 per 100,000 live births
B) 7.1 per 100,000 live births
C) 12.7 per 100,000 live births
D) 608 per 100,000 live births
E) none of these

Question 12

Changes in American death rates can be revealed

A) by studying death rates among specific American populations, such as gender groups or socio-economic classes
B) by comparing death rates in different age groups in the society
C) by observing alterations in infant mortality rates over time
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 13

The crude or unadjusted death rate for males in the United States in 2007

A) was 8.1 per 1,000
B) nearly 50 percent higher than the comparable rate for females
C) reached a new low of 760.2 deaths per 100,000
D) was significantly lower than the comparable rate for females
E) none of these

Question 14

The vignette near the beginning of Chapter 2 explained that Bryan Lee Curtis wanted to:

A) support smoking cigarettes as a personal choice
B) provide people with information about the dangers of smokeless tobacco use
C) teach people how to die
D) change personal attitudes, behaviors, and values related to smoking cigarettes
E) leave behind a happy legacy for his wife and son

Question 15

Projected average life expectancy for all individuals born in the United States in 2007 was

A) 67.8 years
B) 77.9 years
C) 79.9 years
D) 82.3 years
E) none of these

Question 16

Death rates

A) can only be determined accurately when a society keeps adequate birth and death rates
B) are equivalent to the total number of deaths in a society
C) cannot easily be determined on any basis other than gender
D) by themselves can provide a good picture of the numbers of aged people in a society
E) none of these

Question 17

During the year 2007, approximately how many males died in the United States?

A) just over 1.2 million
B) approximately 2.4 million
C) 750,000 thousand
D) 13.4 million
E) 6 million

Question 18

From 1900 to 2007 in the United States, overall death rates dropped from 17.2 deaths per 1,000 to

A) 15.5 per 1,000
B) 9.2 per 1,000
C) 8.0 per 1,000
D) 6.5 per 1,000
E) 5.9 per 1,000

Question 19

In many poor and not well-organized societies today,

A) statistical accuracy concerning death rates must give way to imprecise estimates
B) a fund of accurate demographic statistics is not available
C) demographic statistics derive from birth, death, and census records
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 20

Death-related experiences include which of the following:

A) death-related practices
B) encounters with death
C) attitudes toward death
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 21

You learn that a person with whom you have had unprotected sex during the past month has been diagnosed as infected with HIV. You immediately have yourself tested and the results
Are negative for HIV infection. This means

A) you are not infected with the HIV at this time
B) you are not a carrier of the HIV and cannot pass the infection onto others
C) you do not need to have further HIV testing (unless you engage in additional unprotected sex with someone who is HIV positive)
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 22

HIV infection and AIDS

A) are the same thing
B) are related as cause to effect
C) are related as effect to cause
D) seldom occur at the same time
E) always occur together

Question 23

Which of the following has the greatest influence on encounters with death in our society today?

A) safe driving techniques
B) firearms
C) risky sexual behavior
D) illicit drug use
E) diet and physical activity patterns

Question 24

Communicable diseases often produce the following symptoms:

A) diarrhea and sudden, unanticipated deaths
B) vomiting, nausea, and fever
C) those that develop slowly over time but often go unnoticed until they result in a sudden, unanticipated death
D) the slow, long-term wearing out of bodily organs
E) none of these

Question 25

Which of the following is an example of public health measures that helped reduce death rates in the United States?

A) better communication and transportation systems
B) changing attitudes toward death
C) advanced medical technology
D) improvements in basic sanitation and disposal of sewage
E) better food, clothing, and housing

Question 26

In terms of the biblical promise of "three score and ten" years (that is, 70 years), average human life expectancy in the United States

A) exceeded that figure early in the 20^th century
B) surpassed that figure during the latter portion of the 20^th century
C) did not reach that figure until the first few years of the 21^st century
D) has not yet achieved that figure
E) is a limit that no individual can surpass

Question 27

The leading cancer cause of death for American males is

A) prostate cancer
B) colon and rectal cancer
C) lung and bronchial cancer
D) pancreatic cancer
E) none of these

Question 28

The leading cancer cause of death for American females is

A) prostate cancer
B) colon and rectal cancer
C) lung and bronchial cancer
D) pancreatic cancer
E) none of these

Question 29

In the world today, relatively few people in developed countries die of communicable diseases, with the exception of

A) accidents
B) influenza and pneumonia, septicemia, and infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
C) venereal disease
D) tuberculosis
E) cirrhosis

Question 30

The second leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2007 was

A) cancer
B) cerebrovascular diseases
C) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
D) diseases of the heart
E) cerebrovascular diseases

Question 31

Projected average life expectancies for all individuals born in the United States in 2007

A) decreased slightly for white and black females
B) showed an expansion of the racial differential between the white and black populations
C) reached a record high for white and black males
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 32

The earliest and most important factor associated with reduced death rates in the United States was

A) modern cure-oriented medicine
B) industrialization
C) preventive health care for individuals
D) changes in the structure of contemporary families
E) public health measures

Question 33

Most deaths in contemporary American society occur

A) in some sort of health-care institution
B) in a long-term care facility
C) in the home
D) in the presence of family caregivers
E) none of these

Question 34

In 2009, reliable sources estimated that the number of persons newly infected or living with HIV disease around the world was

A) 4.9 million
B) just under 27.9 million
C) over 33.2 million
D) nearly 40 million
E) 75.6 million

Question 35

The leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2007 was

A) cancer
B) accidents
C) homicide
D) suicide
E) diseases of the heart

Question 36

The three leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2007 were

A) cancer, diseases of the heart, diabetes
B) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, cancer, suicide
C) diseases of the heart, cancer, accidents
D) cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
E) cerebrovascular diseases, diseases of the heart, and cancer

Question 37

The dying trajectory

A) of communicable diseases is often shorter than that of degenerative diseases
B) is unusually similar in both degenerative and communicable diseases
C) can often be more easily foreseen or predicted in degenerative diseases than in communicable diseases
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 38

Diseases with patterns of gradually losing control over one's bodily functions and mental capacities are most likely to be

A) communicable diseases with a long dying trajectory
B) communicable diseases with a short dying trajectory
C) degenerative diseases with a long dying trajectory
D) degenerative diseases with a short dying trajectory
E) none of these

Question 39

A common factor found in persons with AIDS is

A) immune system dysfunction
B) dementia
C) pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
D) hemophilia
E) Kaposi's sarcoma

Question 40

Leading causes of death in the United States around 1900 were

A) communicable diseases
B) degenerative diseases
C) chronic diseases
D) all of these
E) none of these