Practice Flashcards
Q: Which of the following is the only measure of disease occurrence which can be obtained from cross-sectional studies?
Incidence Prevalence Mortality Morbidity Case
A: Prevalence
Q: The prevalence is:
- the number of new cases of a disease in a specific time
- incidence - duration
- incidence x duration
- the probability that a person will develop a particular disease
- the cause of a particular disease
A: incidence x duration
Q: Which of the following is an advantage of a case-control study?
- Can look at multiple outcomes
- Can follow through the natural course of the disease
- Can calculate incidence
- Good to look at rare exposures
- Can examine effects of multiple exposures
A: Can examine effects of multiple exposures
Q: If 5 out of 20 smokers get lung cancer in a year, compared to 1 out of 20 non-smokers, what is the excess fraction?
80% 20% 25% 75% 5%
A: 80%
The excess fraction (or attributable fraction) indicates what proportion of the risk in a person exposed to a risk factor is attributable to that factor. In this case, 4 out of 5 (80%) of the lung cancer cases amongst smokers can be attributed to smoking, and so 80% of lung cancer cases amongst smokers could be eliminated if they did not smoke.
Q: The mathematical relationship between odds and probability is:
- Odds = probability - (1/probability)
- Odds = probability
- Odds = probability / (1-probability)
- Odds = 1 / probability
- Odds = probability + (1/probability)
A: Odds = probability / (1-probability)
Q: The Standardised Mortality Ratio is:
- A type of case-control study
- A rate ratio adjusted for age
- The number of observed deaths in a population over a given time
- The number of expected deaths in a population over a given time
- An outdated and useless measure to modern epidemiologists
A: A rate ratio adjusted for age
The SMR is the number of observed deaths / the number of expected deaths if experienced the same age-specific rates as the standard population. It is therefore a rate ratio adjusted for age.
Q: The most common way of presenting results from a meta-analysis is using a:
- Forest Plot
- Bar graph
- Funnel Plot
- Line graph
- Galbraith Plot
A: forest
A Forest Plot shows the results from each study in a meta-analysis and the combined result.
Q: The most common way of exploring heterogeneity in meta-analyses is using a:
- Forest Plot
- Bar graph
- Funnel Plot
- Line graph
- Galbraith Plot
A: galbraith
Q: The fixed effects and random effects models are used in:
- Cohort studies
- Case-control studies
- Systematic reviews
- Meta-analyses
- Randomised controlled trials
A: Meta-analyses
Q: What is the size of each box proportional to in a forest plot?
A: The larger a box is, the more weight is given to that individual study.
Q: What would you look at to identify the 95% confidence intervals of each individual study (in forest plot)?
A: whisker width
Q: Blinding in a clinical trial helps to remove what type of bias?
A: measurement
Q: How often does the UK Census take place?
A: every 10 yrs
Q: Of the following, which is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK?
Large bowel Stomach Liver Kidney Bladder
A: large bowel
Other commonly diagnosed cancers in the UK include lung and breast cancer
Q: Screening for high blood pressure in older people is an example of which type of screening?
- Mass, systematic
- Mass, opportunistic
- Targeted, systematic
- Targeted, opportunistic
A: Mass, opportunistic
It is “mass” because it applies to the whole population, and “opportunistic” because the opportunity to undergo screening occurs when the patient presents to the doctor or health care professional for another reason.
Q: Which of the following does NOT have a screening programme currently in place in the UK?
- Cervical cancer
- Prostate cancer
- HIV
- Chlamydia
- Hypertension
A: Prostate cancer
Q: Confounding variables can be controlled for at the analysis stage of a study by:
- Randomisation
- Regression
- Matching
- Restriction
- They cannot be controlled for at the analysis stage
A: regression
Stratification, standardisation and regression are the three ways of controlling confounding at the analysis stage.
Q: What is the ability of a test to correctly identify people with the disease?
A: Sensitivity
This is the ability of the test to identify true positives.
Q: Schistosomiasis is transmitted by cerceriae usually living in which of the following hosts?
- Frog
- Snail
- Mosquito
- Monkey
- Soil
A: Snail
The two hosts are humans and snails.
Q: The most prevalent neglected tropical disease in Africa is:
- Lymphatic filariasis
- Schistosomiasis
- Trachoma
- Trypanosomiasis
- Hookworm
A: hookworm
Q: Praziquantel is used against which neglected tropical disease?
- Lymphatic filariasis
- Schistosomiasis
- Trachoma
- Trypanosomiasis
- Hookworm
A: Schistosomiasis
Q: Which pharmaceutical company is donating 120 million doses of azithromycin (Zithromax) for trachoma?
- Johnson and Johnson
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Merck & Co Inc
- Pfizer
- MedPharm
A: pfizer
Q: Which pharmaceutical company has a large commitment to the MDT in eliminating leprosy?
A: Novartis
Q: What is the drug donated by Pfizer which is mainly used to combat trachoma?
A: Zithromax (azithromycin)
Q: Which pharmaceutical company has vowed to ‘donate albendazole to WHO for every country that needs it until LF is eliminated as a public health problem’?
A: GlaxoSmithKline
Q: Which of the following is the most common infectious cause of death worldwide in 1990?
- Measles
- Lower respiratory tract infections
- HIV/AIDS
- Tuberculosis
- Malaria
A: lower resp tract
Q: Epidemiological study of cardiovascular disease in the USA shows that:
- Death rates are higher in women than men
- Death rates decrease with age
- Age-adjusted death rates have decreased since 1950
- Death rates are higher than in countries with less developed economies
- Genetic factors underlie most of the variation in cardiovascular disease risk in the USA and worldwide
A: Age-adjusted death rates have decreased since 1950
Q: What is the most important risk factor for cancer?
A: tobacco
