NR 503 Population Health, Epidemiology and Statistical Principles – Chamberlain Homework Help and Study Guide Chapter 1-20 (Questions & Correct
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Question 1
Which of the following is a condition which may occur during the incubation period?
• Onset of clinical illness
• Receipt of infection
• Signs and symptoms of disease
• Transmission of infection
• Isolation of disease carrier through quarantine
That's correct!
The incubation period is defined as the interval from receipt of infection to the time of onset of clinical illness. Accordingly, individuals may transmit infectious agents during the incubation period as they show no signs of disease that would enable the isolation of sick individuals by quarantine.
Question 2
Chicken pox is a highly communicable disease. It may be transmitted by direct contact with a person infected with the varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The typical incubation time is between 10 to 20 days. A boy started school 2 weeks after showing symptoms of chicken pox including mild fever, skin rash, and fluid-filled blisters. One month after the boy returned to school, none of his classmates had been infected by VZV. The main reason was:
• Herd immunity
• All had been immunized prior to the school year
• Contact was after infectious period
• Subclinical infections were not yet detected
• Disease was endemic in the class
That's correct!
The disease is spread by contact with an infected individual who can transmit the agent (VZV) to immunologically naive persons during the incubation period and for several days after onset of clinical illness. Since the boy started school 14 days after showing signs consistent with chicken pox, it is most likely that he was no longer infectious.
Question 3
The ability of a single person to remain free of clinical illness following exposure to an infectious agent is known as:
• Hygiene
• Vaccination
• Herd immunity
• Immunity
• Latency
That's correct!
Immunity is the capacity of a single individual to avoid disease susceptibility when exposed to an infectious agent. Herd immunity is a population characteristic. For certain diseases, individual immunity can be acquired by vaccination, but this is not true for all infectious diseases.
Question 4
Which of the following is characteristic of a single-exposure, common-vehicle outbreak?
• Long latency period before many illnesses develop
• There is an exponential increase in secondary cases following initial exposures
• Cases include only those who have been exposed to sick persons
• The epidemic curve has a normal distribution when plotted against the logarithm of time
• Wide range in incubation times for sick individuals
That's correct!
Single-exposure, common-vehicle outbreaks involve a sudden, rapid increase in cases of disease that are limited to persons who share a common exposure. Additionally, few secondary cases develop among persons exposed to primary cases. A histogram of the outbreak can plot the number of cases by time of disease onset. In single-exposure, common-vehicle outbreaks, a log transformation of the time of disease onset will often take on the characteristic shape of a normal distribution (i.e., a bell curve) with the median incubation time found at the peak of the curve.
Question 5
What is the diarrhea attack rate in persons who ate both ice cream and pizza?
• 39/52
• 21/70
• 39/67
• 51/67
• none of the above
That's correct!
The attack rate in this example is defined as the number of persons who develop diarrhea divided by the total number of people at risk. In this example, the at-risk group is those who have eaten both ice cream and pizza. Of these 52 persons, 39 developed diarrhea.
Question 6
What is the overall attack rate in persons who did not eat ice cream?
• 30%
• 33%
• 35%
• 44%
• 58%
That's correct!
The attack rate is the number of persons with diarrhea (14 + 9) divided by the total number of persons who did not eat ice cream (40 + 30).
Question 7
Which of the food items (or combination of items) is most likely to be the infective item(s)?
• Pizza only
• Ice cream only
• Neither pizza nor ice cream
• Both pizza and ice cream
• Cannot be assumed from the data shown
That's correct!
Among persons eating ice cream, over 70% developed diarrhea regardless of their pizza consumption (39/52 and 11/15). Among both groups of persons who did not eat ice cream, each attack rate was equal to or less than 35% (14/40 and 9/30).
Question 8
Which of the following reasons can explain why a person who did not consume the infective food item got sick?
• They were directly exposed to persons who did eat the infective food item
• Diarrhea is a general symptom consistent with a number of illnesses
• There may have been an inaccurate recall of which foods were eaten
• All of the above
• None of the above
That's correct!
Without knowledge as to the specific agent in this instance, it is also likely that it can be spread by direct contact with infected persons. Since diarrhea is a general disease symptom, it is possible that several infectious agents may be present at this meal or others eaten during the same time period. Further, information regarding food consumption may have been collected long after the disease episode. This may have led persons to incorrectly remember the foods that they consumed.
Question 9
An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a boarding school with a student enrollment of 846. Fifty-seven students reported symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and low-grade fever between 10 p.m. on September 24 and 8 p.m. on September 25. The ill students lived in dormitories that housed 723 of the students. The table below provides information on the number of students per type of residence and the number reporting illnesses consistent with the described symptoms and onset time. Calculate the attack rate among all students at the boarding school.
That's correct!
The answer is found by dividing the total number of cases (57) by the total number of students (846). This equals 6.7%.
Question 10
An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a boarding school with a student enrollment of 846. Fifty-seven students reported symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and low-grade fever between 10 p.m. on September 24 and 8 p.m. on September 25. The ill students lived in dormitories that housed 723 of the students. The table below provides information on the number of students per type of residence and the number reporting illnesses consistent with the described symptoms and onset time. Calculate the attack rates for boys and girls separately.
That's correct!
For boys, the attack rate includes all cases (40 + 3) divided by the total number of students who are boys (380 + 46). The attack rate is 10.1%.
For girls, the attack rate includes all cases (12 + 2) divided by the total number of students who are girls (343 + 77). The attack rate is 3.3%.
Question 11
An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a boarding school with a student enrollment of 846. Fifty-seven students reported symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and low-grade fever between 10 p.m. on September 24 and 8 p.m. on September 25. The ill students lived in dormitories that housed 723 of the students. The table below provides information on the number of students per type of residence and the number reporting illnesses consistent with the described symptoms and onset time. What is the proportion of total cases occurring in boys?
That's correct!
The proportion of cases occurring in boys is equal to the number of cases in boys divided by the total number of cases (43/57). This equals 75.4%.
Question 12
An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a boarding school with a student enrollment of 846. Fifty-seven students reported symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and low-grade fever between 10 p.m. on September 24 and 8 p.m. on September 25. The ill students lived in dormitories that housed 723 of the students. The table below provides information on the number of students per type of residence and the number reporting illnesses consistent with the described symptoms and onset time. What is the proportion of total cases occurring in students who live in dormitories?
That's correct!
The proportion of cases occurring in dormitory residents is equal to the number of cases in residents divided by the total number of cases (52/57). This equals 91.2%.
Question 13
An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a boarding school with a student enrollment of 846. Fifty-seven students reported symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and low-grade fever between 10 p.m. on September 24 and 8 p.m. on September 25. The ill students lived in dormitories that housed 723 of the students. The table below provides information on the number of students per type of residence and the number reporting illnesses consistent with the described symptoms and onset time. Which proportion is more informative for the purpose of the outbreak investigation?
That's correct!
Both proportions are useful. Dormitory residents account for over 90% of the cases indicating an outbreak of an infectious agent that was transmitted at the school. Furthermore, over 75% of the cases were boys indicating that the responsible agent was more likely to have been transmitted in the boys’ dormitory.
Question 14
A group of researchers are interested in conducting a clinical trial to determine whether a new cholesterol-lowering agent was useful in preventing coronary heart disease (CHD). They identified 12,327 potential participants for the trial. At the initial clinical exam, 309 were discovered to have CHD. The remaining subjects entered the trial and were divided equally into the treatment and placebo groups. Of those in the treatment group, 505 developed CHD after 5 years of follow-up while 477 developed CHD during the same period in the placebo group. What was the prevalence of CHD at the initial exam?
That's correct!
The prevalence of CHD at the initial exam was 309 cases of CHD divided by 12,327 participants. This equals a prevalence of 25.1 cases of CHD per 1,000 persons.
Question 15
A group of researchers are interested in conducting a clinical trial to determine whether a new cholesterol-lowering agent was useful in preventing coronary heart disease (CHD). They identified 12,327 potential participants for the trial. At the initial clinical exam, 309 were discovered to have CHD. The remaining subjects entered the trial and were divided equally into the treatment and placebo groups. Of those in the treatment group, 505 developed CHD after 5 years of follow-up while 477 developed CHD during the same period in the placebo group. What was the incidence of CHD during the 5-year study?
That's correct!
The incidence rate reflects the number of new cases developing in the population at risk. Since prevalent CHD cases were excluded from the study, the population at risk was 12,018 (12,327 persons less 309 cases of CHD). During the 5-year study period, 982 incident cases of CHD developed. This equals an incidence rate of 81.7 cases of CHD per 1,000 persons.
Question 16
Which of the following are examples of a population prevalence rate?
• The number of ear infections suffered by 3-year-old children in March, 2006
• The number of persons with hypertension per 100,000 population
• The number of cases of skin cancer diagnosed in a dermatology clinic
• b and c
• All of the above
That's correct!
Prevalence is the number of affected persons in a specified population size at a given time. Only answer (b) fits this definition. Example (a) is more consistent with an incident rate while answer (c) is a selected group of persons who may not be representative of a general population.
Question 17
What would be the effect on age-specific incidence rates of uterine cancer if women with hysterectomies were excluded from the denominator of incidence calculations assuming that most women who have had hysterectomies are older than 50 years of age.
• The rates in all age groups would remain the same.
• Only rates in women older than 50 years of age would tend to decrease.
• Rates in women younger than 50 years would increase compared to women older than 50 years of age.
• Rates would increase in women older than 50 years of age but may decrease in younger women as they get older.
• It cannot be determined whether the rates would increase or decrease.
That's correct!
Women who have had hysterectomies (i.e., removal of the uterus) are no longer at risk for uterine cancer. For women older than 50 years of age, this would increase the age-specific incidence rate as there would be the same number of uterine cancers occurring among fewer women at risk. Further, rates may decrease among younger women who have had hysterectomies as they are no longer at risk for uterine cancer and thus may decrease the number of potential cases occurring in their age group over time.
Question 18
A survey was conducted among 1,000 randomly sampled adult males in the United States in 2005. The results from this survey are shown below.
The researchers stated that there was a doubling of risk of hypertension in each age group younger than 60 years of age. You conclude that the researchers’ interpretation:
• Is correct
• Is incorrect because prevalence rates are estimated
• Is incorrect because it was based on proportions of the population sample
• Is incorrect because incidence rates do not describe risk
• Is incorrect because the calculations do not include adult females
That's correct!
The survey reports the disease status of a population at a specific point in time. In this case, a random sample of adult males in 2005 provides a reliable estimate of the prevalence of hypertension. Since there is no information on duration of hypertension in these men, incidence cannot be calculated. Therefore, the researchers are not able to make a statement concerning risk of hypertension in the population.
Question 19
The incidence and prevalence rates of a chronic childhood illness for a specific community are given below.
Based on the data, which of the following interpretations best describes disease X?
• The duration of disease is becoming shorter.
• The duration of disease is becoming longer.
• The case-fatality rate of this disease is decreasing.
• Efforts to prevent new cases of this disease are becoming more successful.
• The risk of the disease has decreased over the past 20 years.
That's correct!
Prevalence and incidence are related by the duration of disease. If incidence is increasing over time, then duration of illness has to decrease in order to keep the prevalence rate constant. This may occur through better treatments to cure disease or through higher case-fatality rates as a disease becomes more lethal. Since incidence is increasing over time, it is evident that risk is also increasing and that prevention efforts are not successful.
Question 20
A prevalence survey conducted from January 1 through December 31, 2003 identified 580 new cases of tuberculosis in a city of 2 million persons. The incidence rate of tuberculosis in this population has historically been 1 per 4,000 persons each year. What is the incident rate of tuberculosis per 100,000 persons in 2003?
That's correct!
The answer is 29 new cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 persons. This is found by dividing the new cases of tuberculosis by the total population at risk (580/2,000,000) and multiplying this rate by 100,000 to standardize the rate.
Question 21
A prevalence survey conducted from January 1 through December 31, 2003 identified 580 new cases of tuberculosis in a city of 2 million persons. The incidence rate of tuberculosis in this population has historically been 1 per 4,000 persons each year. Has the risk of tuberculosis increased or decreased during 2003?
That's correct!
The risk of tuberculosis has increased over the historic incident rate. This comparison can be made by standardizing the historic rate to a rate per 100,000 persons. To do this, multiply the numerator and denominator by 25.
Question 22
Which of the following is an advantage of active surveillance?
• Requires less project staff
• Is relatively inexpensive to employ
• More accurate due to reduced reporting burden for health care providers
• Relies on different disease definitions to account for all cases
• Reporting systems can be developed quickly
That's correct!
Active surveillance entails a concerted effort to collect information about disease occurrence. It typically involves dedicated staff members who have been specifically directed to contact physicians and hospitals in order to collect reports of disease cases in a specified population. This activity requires a large amount of staff and resources in order to accomplish its goals.
Question 23
The population of a city on February 15, 2005, was 36,600. The city has a passive surveillance system that [Show Less]