Measuring disease Flashcards
Which type of study minimises loss to follow up?
A. Clinical trial
B. Cohort study
C. Case-control study
A.
What is the name for using associations seen at population level to draw conclusions about the relation in individuals?
A. Confounding
B. Human error
C. Ecological fallacy
C.
Which of these is a limitation to using routine data?
A. Under-reporting due to political and economic reasons
B. Estimated population numbers
C. Ecological fallacy
D. All of the above
D.
What is the advantage of using mortality data?
A. It is useful for non-fatal diseases.
B. It gives current idea of disease incidence.
C. It is reliably and regularly recorded.
C.
Which of these is a disadvantage of using mortality data?
A. It lags behind changes in incidence
B. It is not useful for non-fatal diseases
C. It doesn’t predict incidence if an effective treatment is in place
D. All of the above
D.
Which is true?
A. Crude rates take into account the age and sex distribution of the population
B. Crude rates do not take into account characteristics of the population except its average size
C. Crude rates are very accurate
B. (Contrast to standardised rates).
Why would it be unsuitable to compare the cardiovascular health of two countries using IHD crude mortality rates?
A. Because IHD is a common disease
B. Because IHD is not the only fatal cardiac condition
C. Because crude rates do not take into account the different ageing structures in different countries
C.
Which process allows us to compare the relative health of multiple countries without ending up with lots of age-specific and sex-specific rates?
A. Confounding
B. Summarising
C. Estimation
D. Standardisation
D. Standardisation involves calculating the overall incidence or mortality rate you would expect to see in a “standard” population if it had the same age-specific rates as your study population. You can them compare these age-standardised rates across multiple populations without the problem of different ageing structures.
Which is false?
A. All ratios are proportions
B. All proportions are ratios
C. Proportions have all the subjects in the numerator, included in the denominator
D. A proportion can never be less than 0 or more than 1, or less than 0% or more than 100%
A. All proportions are ratios but not all ratios are proportions.
How is standardised mortality ratio (SMR) calculated?
A. Dividing number of cases by number of deaths
B. Dividing expected deaths by actual deaths
C. Dividing actual deaths by expected deaths
C. The same can be done to calculate standardised incidence/morbidity ratio.
Which process is most useful for calculating incidence rates in small populations?
A. Direct standardisation
B. Indirect standardisation
B.
Which process is most useful for comparing the health of different countries?
A. Direct standardisation
B. Indirect standardisation
A.
When is PMR used?
A. When we already have the SMR
B. When we don’t want the SMR
C. When there is insufficient data to calculate SMR
C. Usually because info is only available about those who have died.
How is PMR calculated?
A. Divide actual deaths by expected deaths
B. Divide the number of deaths in study group by the number of people in standard population
C. Divide proportion of deaths from disease in study population by this same number in a comparison group.
C.
Which is false?
A. PMR of 100 means the proportion of deaths from the disease in the two groups were the same
B. PMR of 150 means people in the comparison group were 1.5 times more likely to die from the disease.
C. PMR of 200 means there were twice as many deaths from the disease in the study group.
B. False because PMR of 150 would mean 1.5 times more people died from the disease in the STUDY group.
Which is false?
A. PMRs are more informative than SMRs
B. PMRs are generally only used in occupational studies
C. PMRs cannot be easily compared between populations.
A. PMRs are only used when population data isn’t readily available and SMR cannot be calculated.
What is the correct term for the proportion of people with a given disease or condition that die from it within a given period? A. Case-fatality ratio B. Incidence proportion C. Incidence rate D. Mortality rate
A.
Which statement is false?
A. CFR is useful for measuring short term severity of an acute disease
B. CFR is equal to mortality rate
C. Survival rate is more useful than CFR for long term disease that results in fatality later down the line.
B.
Which is true?
A. Survival rate is useful for longer term fatal diseases
B. Relative survival rate refers to the survival rate taking into account those who would be expected to die anyway due to other causes
C. Relative survival rate of 100% means mortality does not differ from that experienced by the general population
D. All of the above
D.
Which statements are true of the maternal mortality ratio?
A. The numerator is the number of deaths among women from causes related to childbirth in 1 year up to 42 days after birth
B. The denominator is the number of live births in the same year
C. Both are true
C.
How is the stillbirth or fetal death rate calculated?
A. Dividing of fetal deaths after 28 weeks gestation to number of live and still births in a year
B. Fetal deaths in 1 year divided by live births in same year
C. Number of stillbirths in 1 year divided by number of pregnant women
A.
What is the denominator for calculating neonatal mortality rate?
A. Number of live births
B. Number of live and stillbirths
C. Number of pregnancies
A. Only babies born alive are at risk of dying before the age of 28 days.
What is the name given to the rate of mortality of children up to the age of 1?
A. Neonatal mortality rate
B. Child mortality rate
C. Infant mortality rate
C.
What is the most widely used indicator of the overall health of a population?
A. Standardised mortality rate
B. Infant mortality rate
C. Child mortality rate
B.
