Epidemiological Health Information

Question 1

What is community health assessment based on

Answer 1

Information about health problems and diseases

Question 2

Importance of community based health assessment

Answer 2

The information obtained is needed for Planning and evaluation of health services

Question 3

The cost of obtaining information is high in terms of resources and time. True or false

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Data of importance are usually routine reported health information true or false

Answer 4

True

Question 5

Importance of diseases is based on two factors. Name and explain em

Answer 5

Frequency
•High incidence or prevalence, including potentially epidemic diseases
•Severity causing much disability and a high mortality
•Diseases of high frequency and severity which are preventable or controllable must be prioritised in health planning
Distribution- Age,time , population group

Question 6

Name five sources of epidemiological information

Answer 6

Routine district health information system
•Hospital impatient records
•Outpatient records
•Disease notifications
•Workplace records
•Schools
• special surveys

Question 7

Name one demerit and merit of routine health information system

Answer 7

Commonly has information on the frequency and distribution
•of the locally important causes of morbidity and mortality
•Information is not often in ways that are easily understandable and usable
•Morbidity information generated in the routine health system are often deficient in quality and quantity in most DCs

Question 8

Name one merit and demerit of hospital in patient records

Answer 8

• Can provide high quality information on the most important causes of major illness in a community
• But cannot be a useful health status indicator of a community
• unless considerable efforts are made to reach everyone in catchment population

Question 9

Name one demerit and merit of outpatient clinics records

Answer 9

Provides information on the:
• usage of outpatient facility,
•Most frequent complaints
•Pattern of disease in the community

• Has problems in data collection
• Eg diagnosis are given in terms of chief complaints or symptoms
• Attendance as total visits instead of new and repeated visits
• Information suffers from selection bais

Question 10

Which people are in charge of receiving disease notifications and instituting actions

Answer 10

Health officers in charge of the district

Question 11

With disease notifications,They are restricted to a selected list of important diseases
They Differ from one country to another
Mostly the infectious diseases that require prompt action for control . True or false

Answer 11

True

Question 12

Name one demerit and two merits of the workplaces and schools as sources of health information

Answer 12

Provides information on absence due to illness
•Results of periodic examinations
•Provided information on selected sample who work
•Excludes workers who have left work due to illness or were not employed due to illness
•Schools provided information on absentee due to illness
•Screening results by SHP
•In areas of low attendance information may be bias
• may miss children who are socioeconomically disadvantaged

Question 13

Which two ways can diseases be under recognized by the district health information system

Answer 13

disease has low frequency (incidence or prevalence)
•When illness does not produce clear symptoms and signs that are easily recognized by the people or health workers eg malnutrition

Question 14

Diseases that’s re under recognized require special surveys and research studies for subclinical and chronic infections
•Same applies to mental disability and eye diseases. True or false

Answer 14

True

Question 15

The most available source of morbidity data is at the hospital records true or false

Answer 15

True

Question 16

What accounts for 3/4 deaths in developing countries

Answer 16

Infectious diseases and malnutrition

Question 17

How is death recorded

Answer 17

verbal autopsy or certified deaths by medic or specialised demographic and health survey.

Question 18

Health programmes are more difficult to organize during certain months or seasons
•Disease frequency, health behaviour and use of health services also show considerable seasonal variations or seasonality
. True or false

Answer 18

True

Question 19

How to calculate the approximate number of cases in a population

Answer 19

No of Cases = prevalence rate x total population

Question 20

What is the use of finding the number of cases in a population

Answer 20

It is useful for chronic diseases

It is useful in assessing the effectiveness of health services

Question 21

Finding the number of cases could be affected by

Answer 21

Seasonal or annual fluctuation

Question 22

Finding the number of cases Exposes the limitations in relying on incidence and prevalence rates calculated from cases reported by routine information systems. True or false

Answer 22

True

Question 23

What does an increase in number of cases or deaths signify

Answer 23

That an undetected epidemic is underway in the community

Question 24

What is case fatality rate

Answer 24

number of patients dying from a disease/number of cases of the disease, diagnosed in same period x 100

Question 25

Importance of case fatality rate

Answer 25

Assessing the quality of treatment given by medical services
Case fatality of 15percent is high
It must be interpreted taking into consideration the severity of the illness

Question 26

•Case fatality in epidemics can give clear indication of the severity of illness and could help identify disease causing the epidemic. True or false

Answer 26

True

Question 27

Define death registration and certification

Answer 27

• Death registration is the official recording of a person’s death and usually includes:
• name, age and sex of the person, and the date of death
• It is a legal requirement
• Death certification records the cause of a person’s death, as stated by a doctor or another responsible health worker.

Question 28

Importance of death registration

Answer 28

• `death registration can be useful in compiling mortality statistics and in the surveillance of specific diseases.
• Could be useful in evaluating disease control activities and a rise in certified deaths from
• a particular cause may indicate a serious outbreak
• Mortality data has the advantage of been more accurate than morbidity data
• Disadvantage is that only fatal cases are included
• Data might be deficient when not certified by a doctor
• Under- registration of deaths

Question 29

Deaths are classified by underlying causes and not the direct caused true or false

Answer 29

True