Epidemiology part 2

Question 1

What are descriptive studies?

Answer 1

Describes the who, where, and when.
“Hep A outbreak at child center on easter sunday” .

The who or person.
When or time.
Where or place.

Question 2

What are analytical studies?

BASIC Types of analytical studies?

Answer 2

Tests a hypothesis about relationships between health problems and possible risk factors.

Retrospective - go backwards to find the development of the problem. When did the seniors develop high bp?
Prospective - tracking something as it is happening to see where it went wrong . When will the freshman get high bp?

Question 3

OTHER analytical studies?

Answer 3

Case Control: retrospective, match healthy and unhealthy group together.

Cohort study: prospective, match a group that has something in common

Question 4

Examples of Cohort studies?

Answer 4

Farmington study - Followed those with heart disease from their 20’s till death.

Nurses study - due to nurses being reliable but they were able to find out a lot about women’s health. Fruits and veggie nurses lived longer. And that hormone replacement causes cancer.

Question 5

Example of Case Control study?

Answer 5

Match english major with nursing major. When did they develop high blood pressure?

Question 6

What is relative risk?

What if the relative risk (rr) rate is less than 1?

Answer 6

A probability statement essentially.

Incident rate among those exposed
_____________________
Incident rate among those not exposed

If it is less than 1, it indicates a protective factor which means you are protecting yourself * you want the 1or below

Question 7

Experimental studies definition

What is needed?

Answer 7

Study carried out under controlled conditions
- syphillis study
These are pretty rare in epidemiology.

Control group, treatment group, placebo

Question 8

Causation

Smoking causes cancer. Is that association strong enough to be a causation?

What is a good example of causation?

Answer 8

Means something actually causes something.

No it isn’t because not all people who get cancer smoke. And not all smokers get cancer.
- this is more of a correlation

Good : measles causes measles.

Question 9

Causation rules of association

Answer 9

Strong
Consistent
Temporally correct
Specific
Not from a confounding variable
Plausible and consistent w current knowledge

Question 10

What is screening?

Answer 10

Way to identify those who are ill (if they don’t know) so that they can get treated faster

Question 11

What are some examples of things we screen for?

Answer 11

BP
Cancer
Stds
Covid-19

Question 12

Should we screen for something that has no cure?

A good example of a disease that we wouldn’t screen for?

Answer 12

Usually we should only screen if the early diagnosis and treatment can save a person.

Huntingtons Disease. If someone has an incurable disease like this, they will be told to put their affairs in order.

(- This sound a little strange but they’re not going to waste time on screening people for a disease that can’t be treated bc they are using the money and resources to help discover the treatment)

Question 13

Will they screen someone for a rare disease or any other disease if they don’t have facility to treat them?

Answer 13

No they won’t because there’s no point.

Question 14

Will they screen children for stds? Why or why not?

Answer 14

This goes with the screening guideline that says we should only screen for certain things if the population we are screening is appropriate for it.
Are children being exposed to stds often? No. So we will not screen them.
Same concept in testicular cancer. We don’t screen women for that because that is not the target group.

• Know the concept: only screen if it is appropriate to the population

Question 15

Will we screen for a disease if the test doing so isn’t consistent?

Answer 15

No we won’t . Test must be reliable.

Question 16

Define : Test reliability

Answer 16

Tests being consistent

Question 17

Define: Test validity

Answer 17

Test’s ability to measure what is supposed to be measured

Question 18

Define: Test sensitivity

What does it help avoid?

Answer 18

Test being able to correctly identify those who have the disease.

Sensitivity helps to avoid false positives

Question 19

Define: Test specificity

What does this help avoid?

Answer 19

Test able to identify those who DO NOT have the disease

Specificity helps to avoid false negatives

Question 20

Cons of home screening tests?

What should you do after a positive home screening test?

Answer 20

They don’t have to report or follow up - so you can lose reported numbers.
- not a good thing during covid-19 pandemic

Say you get a positive Hep B test. You should call your doctor so get a for sure diagnosis.

Question 21

How are nurses Reporters?

Answer 21

We do a lot of counting to mitigate illness

Question 22

How are nurses investigators?

Answer 22

Need to investigate how to solve outbreaks

Question 23

So nurses are Reports & Investigators.

What other 3 roles are they?

Answer 23

Reporters and Investigators but also …

Consultant
Responders
Planners

Question 24

If something seems unusual, should you go ahead and report it?

Answer 24

Yes report it

Question 25

What is a passive system?

Answer 25

A designated person will report to health department and then it gets passed on to state and then passed on … until at CDC

Question 26

If disease reporting, can you look at people’s records?

Answer 26

Yes. HIPPA actually doesn’t apply here if you need to look at someone’s record. However , after that you are still bound to HIPPA as in you can’t go and post on facebook about it.

Question 27

How to be an Epi partner?

Answer 27

Be curious
Don’t rely on the form - go deeper. Try to make the connections.
Don’t dismiss evidence