Use of data (2)

Question 1

give 3 medical factors affecting the uptake of care

Answer 1

new symptoms, visible symptoms, increasing severity

Question 2

give 6 non medical factors affecting the uptake of care

Answer 2

crisis, peer pressure, patient beliefs, social class, age, gender, media

Question 3

what are the 3 main aims of epidemiology

Answer 3

description, explanation and disease control

Question 4

define description, explanation and disease control

Answer 4

description - to describe the amount and distribution of disease in human populations. explanation - to elucidate the natural history and identify aetiological factors for disease usually by combining epidemiological data with data from other disciplines eg biochemistry. disease control - to provide the basis on which preventive measures, public health practices and therapeutic strategies can be developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated for the purposes of disease control

Question 5

define description, explanation and disease control

Answer 5

description - to describe the amount and distribution of disease in human populations. explanation - to elucidate the natural history and identify aetiological factors for disease usually by combining epidemiological data with data from other disciplines eg biochemistry. disease control - to provide the basis on which preventive measures, public health practices and therapeutic strategies can be developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated for the purposes of disease control

Question 6

what does epidemiology compare?

Answer 6

compares groups in order to detect differences pointing to aetiological clues, the scope for prevention, and the identification of high risk groups in society

Question 7

define incidence

Answer 7

no. of new cases of a disease in a population in a specified period of time

Question 8

define prevalence

Answer 8

no. of people in a population with a specific disease at a single point in time or in a defined period of time

Question 9

what is the relative risk

Answer 9

measure of the strength of an association between a suspected risk factor and the disease under study. incidence of disease in exposed group divided by incidence of disease in unexposed group

Question 10

what is the relative risk

Answer 10

measure of the strength of an association between a suspected risk factor and the disease under study. incidence of disease in exposed group divided by incidence of disease in unexposed group

Question 11

give some examples of sources of epidemiological data

Answer 11

mortality data, hospital activity stats, cancer stats, accident stats, drug misuse databases

Question 12

define health literacy

Answer 12

people having the knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems

Question 13

what is the CHADS2 score?

Answer 13

estimates the risk of stroke in patients with AF

Question 14

what are NOACs?

Answer 14

newer drugs not requiring regular blood test monitoring - expensive and not easily reversed

Question 15

what score is used to measure major bleeding risk?

Answer 15

HAS-BLED

Question 16

what are descriptive studies?

Answer 16

they attempt to describe the amount and distribution of a disease in a given population

Question 17

what framework do descriptive studies follow?

Answer 17

time, place, person

Question 18

when are descriptive studies useful?

Answer 18

assessing the effectiveness of screening programmes, generating hypotheses about disease aetiology

Question 19

what is a cross sectional study and give some examples

Answer 19

in cross sectional studies observations are made at a single point in time. disease frequency, survey, prevalence study

Question 20

what is a case control study

Answer 20

two groups of people are compared - a group of individuals who have the disease of interest, and a group of individuals who do not

Question 21

what is a cohort study

Answer 21

baseline data on exposure are collected from a group of people who do not have the disease - the group is then followed through time until a sufficient number have developed the disease

Question 22

what is the definitive method of assessing any new treatment in medicine?

Answer 22

randomised controlled trial

Question 23

what factors should be considered when interpreting results?

Answer 23

standardisation, standardised mortality ratio, quality of data, case definition, coding and classification

Question 24

what is standardisation

Answer 24

a set of techniques used to remove the effects of differences in age or other confounding variables, when comparing two or more populations

Question 25

what is the purpose of case definition?

Answer 25

to decide whether an individual has the condition of interest or not

Question 26

what is bias?

Answer 26

any trend in the collection, analysis, interpretation, publication or review of data that can lead to conclusions that are systematically different from the truth

Question 27

give 4 types of bias

Answer 27

selection bias, information bias, follow up bias, systematic error

Question 28

what is selection bias

Answer 28

occurs when the study sample is not truly representative of the whole study population about which conclusions are to be drawn

Question 29

what is information bias

Answer 29

arises from systematic errors in measuring exposure or disease

Question 30

what is follow up bias

Answer 30

arises when one group of subjects is followed up more assiduously than another to measure disease incidence or other relevant outcome

Question 31

what is systematic error

Answer 31

a form of measurement bias where there is a tendency for measurements to always fall on one side of the true value - may be because an instrument is calibrated wrongly

Question 32

define a confounding factor

Answer 32

one which is associated independently with both the disease and with the exposure under investigation, and so distorts the relationship between the exposure and disease