Evidence Based Approaches to Public Health

Question 1

What is “Evidence-based public health”?

Answer 1

The development, implementation, and evaluation of effective programs and policies in public health through application of principles of scientific reasoning, including systematic uses of data and information systems, and appropriate use of behavioral science theory and program planning models.

Question 2

What are frequency measures?

Answer 2

• characterize disease and risk occurrence in populations
• all frequency measures are represented as a fraction and have a numerator and denominator

Question 3

Ratio

Answer 3

Dividing one number by another number, but the numerator does not need to be a subset of the denominator b/c they are two distinct quantities

Question 4

Proportion

Answer 4

Calculated by dividing one number by another, but the numerator is a subset of the denominator

Question 5

Rate

Answer 5

Calculated by dividing one number by another with an additional time component as part of the denominator.

Question 6

Incidence

Answer 6

The measure of the number of new cases of a disease or condition that does not include pre-existing cases of said disease/condition.

Question 7

How can incidence be presented?

Answer 7

Can be presented as:
- a proportion (CI or cumulative incidence)
- a rate (IR or incidence rate)

Question 8

Cumulative Incidence

Answer 8

The number of new cases in a population over a specified time period

Question 9

Incidence Rate

Answer 9

The number of new cases during a person-time of observation.
*Time is measured as the amount of time people are followed or exposed ranging from before the onset to the end of follow-up

Question 10

Prevalence

Answer 10

The number of existing cases during a given time period. *does include new and pre-existing cases that developed during a time period.

Question 11

Point Prevalence

Answer 11

The proportion of the population that is diseased at a single point in time (ex: college graduation or another specific date)

Question 12

Period Prevalence

Answer 12

The proportion of the population that is disease during a specific duration of time (ex: one year)

Question 13

What are the 3 disease distribution terms?

Answer 13

Endemic, Epidemic and Pandemic

Question 14

Endemic

Answer 14

A situation in a community in which there is a consistent elevated rate of a certain disease.

Question 15

Epidemic

Answer 15

An increase in the number of cases of disease in a community, above what is expected.

Question 16

Pandemic

Answer 16

A worldwide epidemic.

Question 17

What are the 2 main epidemiologic study designs?

Answer 17

descriptive and analytic

Question 18

Descriptive Study

Answer 18

Generally observational
ex: case reports, case series and cross-sectional

Question 19

Analytic Study

Answer 19

Can be interventional (experimental) and observational.

Question 20

Case Studies/Reports

Answer 20

Studies used to alert people of a new illness or new association with an illness. Reports are of people with the condition or interest.

Question 21

Cross-Sectional Studies

Answer 21

Studies that include people who are representative of a given population. Selection is not based on illness or exposure but determines initial associations and identifies prevalence of exposure or illness in the group.

Question 22

Ecological Studies

Answer 22

Studies are used to describe populations, and the data is not analyzed on an individual basis. Be careful of the ecological fallacy where group-level data is used to report on individuals.

Question 23

Case-Control Studies

Answer 23

Studies that examine rates of exposure among selected people with or without the disease.

Question 24

Cohort Studies

Answer 24

Studies where individuals are selected on the basis of exposure to determine the rate of disease development. This kind of study is ideal for rare exposures and can follow people prospectively or retrospectively.

Question 25

Randomized Controlled Trials

Answer 25

Study interested in testing an intervention that is given by a researcher/s to two or more groups. Individuals will be randomly assigned to groups - intervention and placebo. Outcomes are then compared among both groups to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention/s.

Question 26

Single vs Double Blinding Study

Answer 26

In RCT’s studies can be single-blinded (participants do not know which group they are assigned to) or double-blinded (participants and researchers are unaware of who is in which group)

Question 27

Systematic Reviews/Meta-analyses

Answer 27

Studies that pool the results of multiple independent studies with established criteria to id evidence for associations of interest.