Deck 11: Epidemiology

Question 1

What statistic is used to answer the question, "How likely is it that I will die from this disease?"

A) Case-fatality rate
B) Specific mortality rate
C) Relative risk
D) Incidence

Answer 1

Case-fatality rate

Question 2

A nurse is working with a student nurse and explains that 12% of deaths were from colorectal cancer in 2010. What word is used to describe this type of statistical information?

A) Crude mortality
B) Relative risk
C) Prevalence
D) Proportional mortality

Answer 2

Proportional mortality

Question 3

A public health nurse (PHN) is explaining to a nursing student how to use health statistics to understand population health. The nursing student wants to administer a survey about smoking behaviours to students in various grade levels within the school district to identify the best grade to initiate health education. A follow-up survey will be administered to assess the effectiveness of the educational program. What type of research design would be best at providing the epidemiological information needed in this scenario?

A) Cross-sectional study
B) Cohort design
C) Randomized control trial
D) Case-control methodology

Answer 3

Cross-sectional study

Question 4

A public health nurse (PHN) is explaining to a nursing student how to use health statistics to understand population health. The PHN asks the nursing student how participant privacy will be managed in the study. What strategy presented by the student would be best at meeting this ethical concern?

A) Data will be used in a confidential manner
B) The survey will be anonymous
C) The participants will sign a consent form
D) Ethics approval will be sought

Question 5

What is an example of tertiary prevention of a communicable disease?

A) Observing clients taking tuberculosis medication
B) Demonstrating vaccine efficacy rates
C) Encouraging frequent handwashing during flu season
D) Immunizing students during a meningitis outbreak

Question 6

A public health nurse (PHN) is explaining to a nursing student how to use health statistics to understand population health. The PHN is comparing the incidence of childhood asthma in a population exposed to a certain air pollutant with the incidence in a population not exposed to that pollutant to determine relative risk. The PHN asks the student to select the statistic, which supports that the risk for asthma is greater in the exposed population. What is the correct answer?

A) <1.0
B) 0.05
C) 1.0
D) >1.0

Question 7

The public health nurses (PHNs) are busy responding to seasonal influenza in a community of approximately 75 000 people. An assisted living facility has an increased number of influenza cases among the residents. Family members of the residents have been following FluWatch on the Public Health Agency of Canada web page. What type of reporting is FluWatch?

A) Statistics Canada information
B) Surveillance data
C) Health Reports
D) Reportable disease

Question 8

A nurse is working with the school-aged population during the prepathogenesis period. What primary prevention activity would promote the health of this population?

A) Case finding children who may have been exposed to a teacher with hepatitis A
B) Teaching handwashing and respiratory hygiene
C) Providing antimicrobials for newly diagnosed contacts
D) Advocating for testing of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at a school-based clinic

Question 9

A nurse in a large urban centre is working to provide secondary prevention. What action is the best example of this goal?

A) Providing varicella-zoster immune globin (VZIG) to appropriate children after a classmate is diagnosed with chickenpox
B) Screening mammography for the early detection of breast cancer
C) Routinely immunizing 1-year-old children for measles, mumps, and rubella
D) Tuberculosis (TB) testing exposed students at a high school after a student is diagnosed with TB

Question 10

The public health nurses (PHNs) are busy responding to seasonal influenza in a community of approximately 75 000 people. An assisted living facility has an increased number of influenza cases among the residents.The PHNs are trying to protect the residents from the flu. What is an example of a primary prevention initiative?

A) Increasing assessments of the ill to identify complications early
B) Screening individuals for signs of influenza
C) Instructing individuals to sneeze into one's arm
D) Administering Tamiflu to ill residents

Question 11

Which epidemiological model best allows a nurse to visualize the relationships between various determinants of health?

A) Causation criteria
B) Epidemiological triangle
C) Web of causation
D) Venn diagram

Question 12

What agency in Canada is currenlty responsible for gathering surveillance data on reportable diseases?

A) Health Canada
B) Statistics Canada
C) Canadian Institutes of Health Information (CIHI)
D) Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)

Question 13

The public health nurses (PHNs) are busy responding to seasonal influenza in a community of approximately 75 000 people. An assisted living facility has an increased number of influenza cases among the residents. A nurse is doing an inservice with the nursing staff at the facility about the transmission of the influenza virus. Which is an example of direct transmission?

A) Inhaling a droplet from a sneeze
B) Shaking a contaminated hand
C) Drinking tainted water
D) Touching a contaminated doorknob

Question 14

What term refers to "the study of the occurrence and distribution of health-related states or events in specified populations"?

A) Nosology
B) Epidemiology
C) Susceptibility
D) Biologic plausibility

Question 15

A nurse wants to know the current rate of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in women aged 25 years as indicated by abnormal Pap smears. Which type of research design would be best to answer this question?

A) Manipulation methodology
B) Cross-sectional
C) Prospective cohort
D) Randomized controlled

Question 16

What statement best describes a cohort study?

A) It focuses on a group of people exposed to a particular health problem or potential stressor over time
B) The researcher manipulates some of the variables in order to ascertain the effect of the manipulation
C) The individuals in the group with the disease are matched with individuals who are similar in some characteristics (e.g., age, gender) but who have not manifested the disease in question
D) Selected variables within a specific population are studied to look for evidence of association and causality

Question 17

A public health nurse (PHN) is explaining to a nursing student how to use health statistics to understand population health. The PHN asks the nursing student to develop some questions for a survey about smoking behaviour. Which question would be best at eliciting information on period prevalence?

A) "Do you currently smoke?"
B) "Have you smoked within the last six months?"
C) "Have you ever smoked?"
D) "At what age did you start smoking?"

Question 18

A nurse is concerned about a recent outbreak of measles in a group of migrant workers. How would the nurse explain the concept of incidence to a new staff member?

A) The rate at which new cases occur in a population during a specified period
B) A measurement of disease frequency
C) Occurs frequently and with predicted regularity
D) The proportion of a population that is affected by the disease at a specific time

Question 19

What is the purpose of epidemiology?

A) The study of the occurrence and distribution of health-related states in specified populations
B) To provide statistics to direct health care funding to the appropriate cause
C) To predict and control challenges to population health
D) An area of medicine that deals with the study of the causes of disease in populations

Question 20

Who is believed to be the first person to notice and record the relationship between the environment and health

A) Labonte
B) Nightingale
C) Epp
D) Hippocrates

Question 21

What term is used to answer the question "how bad is it?" and to describe the effect of a given disease?

A) Survival rate
B) Incidence rate
C) Prevalence rate
D) Mortality rate

Question 22

What type of research design was used in the Framingham Heart Study?

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

Question 23

Identify four criteria that researchers and practitioners use to assess a causal relationship between a stimulus and the occurrence of a disease.

Question 24

Which of the following terms is used to compare the number of deaths from a specific cause within the entire population?

A) Specific mortality rate
B) Infant death date
C) Crude mortality rate
D) Relative death rate

Question 25

Which of the following is included in the most commonly cited criteria for causation?

A) Specificity
B) Sensitivity
C) Qualitative replication
D) Strength of screening

Question 26

Choose any infectious disease, such as tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infection, influenza, leprosy, etc. Apply your chosen disease to the natural history of disease process and describe two interventions that could be done by CHNs in each of the five levels of preventive measures.

Question 27

Which of the statements below is true of the epidemiologic model

A) The classic epidemiologic model contains four elements: The agent, host, environment, and vector
B) The vector is the contagious or non-contagious force that can begin or prolong a health problem
C) The host is the human being in which the disease occurs
D) The agent is a factor that moves between the host and environment

Question 28

Calculate the odds ratio of developing colorectal cancer related to a low-fibre diet from the following example. Write a statement that would explain your results to a client.
Study group = 300
Risk factor = low-fibre diet
Disease = colorectal cancer
Persons with low-fibre diet and colorectal cancer = 100
Persons with high-fibre diet and colorectal cancer = 20
Total persons with colorectal cancer = 120
Person with low-fibre diet and no colorectal cancer = 20
Persons with high-fibre diet and no colorectal cancer = 160
Total persons without colorectal cancer = 180

Question 29

Describe three areas that Florence Nightingale addressed during the Crimean War that advanced the science of epidemiology. Give an example for each area that illustrates the relationship with current community health nursing practice.

Question 30

A public health nurse has been contacted because 12 students living in a college dormitory are ill with bacterial meningitis. The cases have been confirmed to be caused by Neisseria meningitidis. Using the Venn diagram, describe the environmental characteristics in this scenario and the mode of transmission of this organism.