Deck 12: Surveillance: Collecting Health-Related Data for Epidemiological

Question 1

What is the single most important reason for distributing regular surveillance summaries?

A)To document epidemiologic investigations
B)To provide timely information on disease patterns and trends to those who need this information
C)To provide feedback to those who provided the data
D)To publish the results of surveillance programmes in peer‐reviewed journals
E)Regular surveillance summaries should not be distributed because the information is confidential

Answer 1

To provide timely information on disease patterns and trends to those who need this information

Question 2

Evaluation of a surveillance programme should address which of the following? (Select all that apply)

A)The timeliness of the information it produces
B)The sensitivity of the system to detect cases
C)The number of peer‐reviewed publications it generates
D)The effectiveness of the measures used to control the disease under surveillance
E)Cost

Answer 2

The timeliness of the information it produces
The sensitivity of the system to detect cases
Cost

Question 3

Which of the following are forms of surveillance? (Select all that apply)

A)Digital surveillance
B)Rumour surveillance
C)Passive surveillance
D)Syndromic surveillance
E)Indirect surveillance

Answer 3

Digital surveillance
Rumour surveillance
Passive surveillance
Syndromic surveillance

Question 4

Which of the following activities form part of public health surveillance? (Select all that apply)

A)Data collection
B)Data analysis
C)Data interpretation
D)Data dissemination
E)Intervention

Question 5

For surveillance, the public health importance of a disease is determined by which of the following? (Select all that apply)

A)The incidence of the disease
B)The severity of the disease
C)The duration of the disease
D)The results of randomised controlled trials
E)The cost of the disease to society

Question 6

Which of the following statements could be used to describe sentinel surveillance? (Select all that apply)

A)It requires a very sophisticated data collection system
B)It can play a valuable role in resource‐poor countries
C)It requires all healthcare providers to report cases
D)It relies on reporting of cases from a small number of sources to give an indication of the level of disease in the whole community
E)It is always conducted at a national level

Question 7

The case definition used for surveillance of a health problem should always be the
same as the case definition used for clinical (treatment) purposes.

Question 8

Which of the following might be the subject of a public health surveillance programme? (Select all that apply)

A)Infectious diseases
B)Chronic diseases
C)Injuries
D)Risk factors for disease
E)Presence of viruses in mosquitoes

Question 9

Which of the following statements describe event‐based surveillance? (Select all that apply)

A)It is based on a specific case definition
B)It is based on symptoms, signs, or other characteristics of a disease
C)It requires diagnosis based on a laboratory test
D)It is based on reports of individual cases of disease
E)It plays a role in detecting potential outbreaks of disease

Question 10

Common uses of public health surveillance include which of the following? (Select all that apply)

A)To identify the relationship between a risk factor and a disease
B)To inform health policy
C)To identify the health costs associated with various health conditions
D)To monitor the introduction of new drugs
E)To detect clusters