Ch. 5: epidemiology

Question 1

epidemiology

Answer 1

the study of epidemics and the epidemiological method was initially used to investigate, control, and prevent epidemics of infectious disease.
-• Today, it is also applied to the study of injuries, chronic disease, and social problems.

Question 2

The work of an epidemiologist

Answer 2

count cases and measure the population in which they arise in order to calculate rates of occurrence of a health problem and compare the rates in different groups of people.

Question 3

goal of epidemiology

Answer 3

The primary goal is to control and prevent these health problems, typically through the formulation of specific health policies.

Question 4

case

Answer 4

a particular instance of a disease or outcome of interest.

Question 5

difference between epidemiology & clinical medicine or lab science

Answer 5

its focus on health problems of populations rather than of individual patients.

Question 6

risk

Answer 6

the likelihood that people who are without a disease, but exposed to certain risk factors, will acquire the disease at some point in their lives.

Question 7

other risk factors

Answer 7

behavioral, such as smoking, gaining excess weight, or not wearing a seat belt.

Question 8

relative risk

Answer 8

a comparison of the risk of a health-related event in two groups and can be differentiated by gender, age, or exposure to a suspected risk factor.

Question 9

incidence

Answer 9

how frequently a disease occurs in a population defined as the proportion of the group initially free of a disease that develops the disease over a period of time.

Question 10

prevalence

Answer 10

expressing the frequency of occurrence of an event, or the proportion of a group possessing a disease at a specific time.

Question 11

vital statistics

Answer 11

government records: births, deaths, and marriages

Question 12

Ecological or Correlational Studies

Answer 12

compare the frequency of events in different populations with the per capita consumption of certain dietary factors.

Question 13

Data from ecological studies

Answer 13

cannot be used to draw conclusions about the role of foods or nutrients in the development of specific diseases, but they can be used to generate hypotheses which can then be tested with a more rigorous study design.

Question 14

Cross-sectional or Prevalence Studies

Answer 14

examine the relationships among dietary intake, diseases, and other variables as they exist in populations at a particular time.

Question 15

Cohort Studies

Answer 15

are like moving pictures of events occurring within populations, whereas cross-sectional studies are like a snapshot.

Question 16

cohort

Answer 16

A group of people, called a cohort, free from the disease is identified and examined, and then followed for months or even years during which the group members are examined periodically to determine which individuals develop the characteristics of interest and which do not.

Question 17

Case-Control Studies

Answer 17

In a case-control study, a group of persons with the disease is compared with a group of persons without the disease to compare characteristics, such as previous exposure to a factor, between cases and controls.

Question 18

Controlled Trial

Answer 18

The most rigorous evaluation of a dietary hypothesis is the randomized controlled trial conducted as a double-blind experiment.