Nutrition Epidemiology

Question 1

Risk Factor

Answer 1

any factor associated with increased likelihood of experiencing a disease or condition (behavioral characteristics, lifestyle, environmental exposure, gene)

Question 2

Prevalence

Answer 2

Frequency of a disease/condition (proportion)

• number of cases in a population at a specific time divided by the number of persons in the population at that time
• count all cases in a population

Question 3

Incidence

Answer 3

Risk of developing a condition over time (rate)

• occurrence of new cases that develop in a population over a specific period of time
• count new cases in a population at risk
• expressed as rate per person-year

Question 4

Cohort

Answer 4

group of people without disease followed over time

Question 5

Prospective cohort

Answer 5

• starts at present and follows participants throughout their life

Question 6

Retrospective cohort

Answer 6

• starts in the present and moves back through time

- compares exposed to non-exposed from the cohort

Question 7

Randomized control trial

Answer 7

• compare histories of a group of interest (cancer) with a comparison group (doesn’t have cancer)

Question 8

Limitations of epidemiological studies

Answer 8

• They can’t be used to assume a causal relationship

- They tend to require large sample sizes and include lots of statistical confounders that need to be adjusted for

Question 9

Confounder

Answer 9

variables that impact the relationship between your primary study variables
- Ex: coffee is related to cancer (coffee isn’t actually related to cancer, but people who drink coffee also smoke which causes cancer)