What is epidemiology? Flashcards

1
Q

What is epidemiology?

A

The study of the distribution and determinants of health related states or events in specific populations

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2
Q

How do communicable and chronic diseases vary in aetiology?

A

Communicable disease = cause is singular and deterministic e.g. if you get infected with cholera, you will get ill)

Chronic disease = cause is multifactorial and probabilistic e.g. even having a genetic predisposition, smoking, drinking alcohol and a unhealthy diet doesn’t mean you will get the disease but increases risk.

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3
Q

What are the 9 Bradford hill points?

A

1) strength of association
2) consistently of association
3) specificity of association
4) temporality
5) dose-response
6) plausibility
7) coherence
8) experimental (or interventional) evidence
9) analogy

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4
Q

Is a strong or weak association more likely to be causal?

A

Strong association

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5
Q

Does a weak association disprove causality?

A

No

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6
Q

What is consistency of association?

A

Seeing association between two variables regardless of who is studied and how

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7
Q

What is coherence of evidence?

A

Does evidence findings match findings from other studies

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8
Q

What is the prevention paradox?

A

A smaller risk affecting more people produces more cases than a high risk affecting less people so prevention targeted at high risk groups is less effective at reducing cases.

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9
Q

What is attributable risk?

A

A measure of the proportion of morbidity or mortality that can be attributed to a given exposure

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10
Q

What is background risk?

A

The base level of risk due to incidence of disease not due to a particular exposure (e.g. the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers based on the incidence of lung cancer in people who never smoked)

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11
Q

What is the relationship between attributable risk and potential for prevention?

A

Attributable risk = potential for prevention

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12
Q

What is factual exposure and counterfactual exposure?

A

Factual is what is the current situation/level of exposure/incidence/mortality? and the counterfactual is what would the situation be/level of exposure/incidence/mortality if we implemented an intervention/prevention?

E.g. factual = patients current risk of lung cancer vs counterfactual = patients risk if they stopped smoking

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