Deck 7: Statistics: Making Sense of Uncertainty the Uncertainty of Science

Question 1

Which of the following is used to describe the variety and frequency of past outcomes under similar conditions as a way of predicting what should happen in the future?

A) Mortality rates
B) Morbidity rates
C) Probabilities
D) Statistics

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What p value has been arbitrarily taken as the criterion for a result to be considered statistically significant?

A) 0.02
B) 0.05
C) 0.08
D) 0.10

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What calculated concept gives greater weight to deaths of young people, appropriate to the priorities of public health, which has the goal of enabling people to live out their natural lifespans with a minimum of illness and disability?

A) Years of potential life lost
B) Premature mortality rate
C) Morbidity rate
D) Life Expectancy

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Science is often less definitive than people want it to be.

Question 5

Studies of the change in the risk of breast cancer that comes with hormone replacement therapy have contradicted one another.

Question 6

Studies with low power are likely to produce false-negative results.

Question 7

According to Aristotle, "the probable is what always happens."

Question 8

The only way to be sure that screening actually saves lives is to conduct randomized controlled trials.

Question 9

Public health's mission to protect the population from disease and injury requires governments to minimize risks or at least weigh risks against expected benefits, just as individuals do in their own lives.

Question 10

The science of epidemiology rests on _____________________.

Question 11

Rates help to put absolute values of health outcomes into _____________________.

Question 12

Adjusted rates for statistics such as deaths per capita can be more informative than _____________________ rates.

Question 13

As a result of the apparent irrationality o the public in response to risks that the experts estimated to be small, a field of study has developed concerning _____________________.

Question 14

whats the following terms to the appropriate description.
-Expresses the probability that the observed result could have occurred by chance alone.

Question 15

whats the following terms to the appropriate description.
-Range of values within which the true result probably falls

Question 16

whats the following terms to the appropriate description.
-The probability of finding an effect if there is, in fact, an effect

Question 17

whats the following terms to the appropriate description.
-Occur when the study finds an effect that is not real

Question 18

whats the terms to the appropriate description.
-Yields few false positives

Question 19

whats the terms to the appropriate description.
-Yields few false negatives

Question 20

whats the terms to the appropriate description.
-Occurs when increased survival time after diagnosis is counted as an indicator of success

Question 21

whats the terms to the appropriate description.
-Occurs when the tumors that are detected by the screening are not likely to progress to the stage that they cause symptoms and be life threatening

Question 22

Which of the following expresses the probability that the observed result could have occurred by chance alone?

A) p value
B) Confidence interval
C) Power
D) False-positives

Question 23

If an experiment was repeated 100 times, the same answer results 95 of those times while 5 times would yield a different answer, what is the p value of this experiment?

A) 0.05
B) 0.095
C) 0.5
D) 0.95

Question 24

An unusual concentration of some kind of cancer, such as childhood leukemia, that alarms everyone in the community is referred to as which of the following?

A) Outbreak
B) Epidemic
C) Endemic
D) Cancer cluster

Question 25

Contradictory results from epidemiologic studies are uncommon.

Question 26

The greater the confidence interval, the lower the likelihood of random error.

Question 27

When the causes of disease are not well understood, as in breast cancer, little is known about primary prevention.

Question 28

Risk assessment ends when events and exposures have been identified.

Question 29

Risk assessment can rely on either current or historical data.

Question 30

The field of risk perception is based on the fact that public reaction to calculated and published risk is usually rational.

Question 31

Cost-benefit analysis usually bases itself on perceived benefit in terms of social interactions.

Question 32

Cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis are essentially the same thing.

Question 33

The numbers that describe the health of populations and the science that helps to interpret those numbers is referred to as _____________________.

Question 34

For most public health screening programs, ___________________ tests are desirable in order to avoid missing any individual with a serious disease who could be helped by some intervention.

Question 35

Whats the appropriate year of the event?
-States of Illinois and Louisiana mandated premarital screening for HIV

Question 36

Whats the appropriate year of the event?
-New England Journal of Medicine reports that screening with spiral CT scans could detect lung cancers early enough that treatment allowed 80 percent of patients to survive for 10 years

Question 37

Whats the appropriate year of the event?
-Public's perception about nuclear power gained credibility after the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania

Question 38

Whats the appropriate year of the event?
-New England Journal of Medicine published a report that women have a 30-70 percent increased risk of breast cancer if they take hormone replacement therapy after menopause.

Question 39

Whats the appropriate descriptionof the term?
-Developed as a result of the apparent irrationality of the public in response to the risks that the experts estimated to be small

Question 40

Whats the appropriate descriptionof the term?
-Identifies events and exposures that may be harmful to humans and estimates the probabilities of their occurrence as well as the extent of harm they may cause

Question 41

Whats the appropriate descriptionof the term?
-Weighs the estimated cost of implementing a policy against the estimated benefit

Question 42

Whats the appropriate descriptionof the term?
-Compares the efficiency of different methods of attaining the same objective