Year 2 Flashcards by Hannah Knowles

What is epidemiology

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

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What are types of determinants

Chemical
Biological
Physical 
Behavioural 
Social
Culture

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What is the scientific method

Observations -> propose a hypothesis -> test the hypothesis -> reject the hypothesis -> modify the hypothesis -> test the hypothesis -> not reject -> test the hypothesis until you can reject it -> modify the hypothesis

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What is the meaning of aetiology

The study of the cause or causes of a disease

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What is evidence based medicine

The conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients

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What are the four types of evidence

Description
Prediction
Casual inference
Qualitative

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What is a population

The total inhabitants of a given area

The universe from which a sample is drawn

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What is a population based study

When the study population = a total population of a country or area

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What is a cross-sectional study

A study of a group of people at a single point in time

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What is a cohort study

A study that examines groups of people over time

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What is a health outcome

The impact healthcare activities have on people:
course of symptoms
whether they live or die
ability to do what they want to do
the cost of care
satisfaction with treatment

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What are types of health outcomes

Record based:
mortality
disease incidence

Biological/clinical:
lab results
BMI
blood pressure

Clinician/ patient reported:
symptom scores
health related quality of life

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What are common issues in a study

Selection bias
Timing of assessments
Missing data
Response shift
Differential item functioning such as language, culture, country, age, gender, treatment

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What is a health related state

An outcome 
EG:
Disease
Death
Use of health services
Behaviour
Reaction to treatment
Accident
Battlefield wounds

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What is the distribution

Frequency, how many

count
rate
risk

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What is evidence based medicine

Integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence and patient values and expectations

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What is a census

The sample is the total population

What is a population based study

study population is equal to a total population of a country or area

What is a case series

Describes a sample of cases with the same disease

Allows for description of natural history and prediction of prognosis

What is a disease register

counts and collects information on people diagnosed with a particular disease
Commonly population based so you can estimate the disease occurrence per population

What is a cross sectional study

A study of a group of people at a single point in time

What is a cohort study

Examines groups of people over time

What is an ecological study

Examines variations between geographical areas

Units of analysis are not individual people but areas

What is inter-rater reliability

Do different assessors give the same result

What is test-retest reliability

Are measurements consistent over time, if nothing has changed

What are the data properties

Continuous Discrete Nominal Ordinal

What is selection bias

Patients are selected in clinical trials to give an overrepresentation of 'good' patients so not representative of the population

How can risk be measured

Relative risk Risk difference Odds ratio

How do you calculate relative risk

Risk in exposed group divided by risk in unexposed group | RR= (a/(a+b))/ (c/(c+d))

What are odds

The probability of an event occurring divided by the probability of the event not occurring

How do you calculate the odds ratio

Odds in exposed group/ odds in unexposed group | OR= (a/b)/ (c/d)

What is the 95% Confidence interval used for

To estimate the precision of OR, RR Large CI= lower precision of OR, RR Small CI= greater precision of OR, RR

What does it mean of the CI crosses 1

There is no statistical significance to your findings

How is risk difference calculated

Risk in exposed group - Risk in unexposed group

What is the number needed to treat

The number of people who need to receive treatment in order to achieve the required outcome in one of them NNT = 1/risk difference

What are the four key concepts in economics, used in health economics

Opportunity cost Efficiency Marginal analysis Equity

What is opportunity cost

Choosing A over B means giving up B which implies the value of the benefits from A is greater than from B The value of forgone benefit which could be obtained from a resource in its next best alternative use

What is efficiency in economics

maximising the benefit for the resources used

What is allocative efficiency

Concerned with wether to allocate resources to a programme or whether to allocate more or less resources to it

What is technical efficiency

Concerned with how best to deliver a programme or achieve a given objective

What is marginal analysis

Involves comparing the benefit from that next step (marginal benefit) with the cost of taking the next step (marginal cost)

What is equity

Concerned with the fairness or justice of the distributions of costs and benefits to different people and sectors