MPH515 2021 July Module 8 Quiz Latest

MPH515 Epidemiology and Biostatistics for Public Health Application I

Module 8 Quiz  

Question 1 Controlled clinical trials enable researchers to: 

  test new drugs, new therapies, and new medical devices.

  exercise control over who will receive an exposure.

  identify definitive relationships between causes and effects.

  All are correct.

Question 2A major advantage of community trials is that they are able to:

  control delivery of the intervention to many study units.

  estimate directly the realistic impact of behavior change.

  randomize subjects precisely to the study conditions.

  All are correct.

Question 3To assess clinical end points, investigators:

  compare rates of disease.

  compare rates of death.

  compare rates of recovery.

  All are correct.

Question 4 The purpose of randomization is to reduce error that results from:

  the way in which the outcome is assessed.

  subjects’ participation in the trial.

  assignment to study conditions.

  the way in which the outcome is assessed and assignment to study conditions.

  All are correct.

Question 5Surrogate endpoints for a clinical trial of a drug to control hypertension may include: 

  subclinical disease.

  physical measures such as reduction in blood pressure.

  occurrence of strokes and heart attacks.

  subclinical disease and physical measures such as reduction in blood pressure.

Question 6The purpose of a double-blind design in clinical trials is to reduce error that results from:

  the way in which the outcome is assessed.

  subjects’ knowledge of their assignment to study conditions.

  nonrandom assignment to study conditions.

  the way in which the outcome is assessed and subjects’ knowledge of their assignment to study conditions.

Question 7The Stanford Five-City Project, a major community trial designed to lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases, used two types of surveys to measure treatment-control differences across risk factors.

What were they?

  Both cross-sectional surveys of households and surveys of a cohort

  Both community surveys and focus group surveys

  Both surveys of clinical end points and surveys of outcomes

  Both case-control groups and surveys of cohorts

Question 8In contrast to observational studies, intervention studies are employed to:

  generate knowledge about the etiology and natural history of disease.

  formulate strategies for prevention.

  test the efficacy of prevention measures.

  All are correct.

Question 9A prophylactic trial is designed to:

  compare rates of disease, death, and recovery in a population.

  measure how well drugs produce improvement in a patient’s illness.

  evaluate the effectiveness of a substance used to prevent disease.

  estimate the impact of exposure on the incidence of disease.

Question 10Phase III clinical trials for a cancer drug involve:

  initial testing in humans.

  testing with different tumor types.

  checking the new therapy against available therapies.

  None of these is correct.

Question 11In the United States, anthrax usually affects livestock, some wild animals, and humans.

  True

  False

Question 12Molecular epidemiology applies the techniques of molecular biology to epidemiologic studies.

  True

  False

Question 13John Gaunt is known as the Columbus of biostatistics.

  True

  False

Question 14The 1918 influenza pandemic is also known as “the Mother of All Pandemics.”

  True

  False

Question 15The Framingham Heart Study, begun in 1948, pioneered research into coronary heart disease risk factors.

  True

  False

Question 16Which of the following activities characterizes a clinical approach (as opposed to an epidemiologic approach)?

  Description of specific signs and symptoms in a patient

  Description of seasonal trends in disease occurrence

  Examination of disease occurrence among population groups

  Demonstration of geographic variations in disease frequency

Question 17The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is responsible for: 

  tracking down disease outbreaks in the United States and foreign countries.

  collecting routine epidemiologic data for local health departments.

  printing epidemiologic reports for members of the community.

  reporting suspicious bioterrorism agents to governmental agencies.

Question 18Cyclic variations in the occurrence of pneumonia and influenza mortality may reflect: 

  seasonal variations in cases of influenza.

  the fact that influenza is a disappearing disorder.

  long-term changes in mortality trends.

  seasonal variations in cases of influenza and the fact that influenza is a disappearing disorder.

Question 19Which of the following activities characterizes an epidemiologic approach (as opposed to a clinical approach)?

  Description of a single individual’s symptoms

  Surveillance of a population

  Treatment of a patient with diagnosed illness

  Description of a single individual’s symptoms and treatment of a patient with a diagnosed illness

Question 20Which of the following is not usually an aim of epidemiology? 

  To describe the health status of the population

  To fund new public health programs

  To explain the etiology of disease

  To predict the occurrence of disease

  To control the distribution of disease

Question 21Using epidemiology for operational research involves the study of:

  community health services.

  risks to the individual.

  disease syndromes.

  All are correct.

Question 22What level of prevention is represented by immunization against rubella?

  Primary prevention, active

  Primary prevention, passive

  Secondary prevention

  Tertiary prevention

Question 23The uses of epidemiology include:

  search for determinants (causes of disease).

  estimation of individual risks and chances of contracting disease.

  evaluation of health services.

  All are correct.

Question 24What level of prevention is represented by nutritional counseling for pregnant women?

  Primary prevention, active

  Primary prevention, passive

  Secondary prevention

  Tertiary prevention

Question 25Which of the following does not describe the Gini index?

  It is a measure of income inequality.

  It is related to the number of unhealthy days in U.S. states.

  It varies across states in the United States.

  It ranges from 1 to 2.

  It represents complete income inequality when it is 1.

Question 26Determining workload and planning the scope of facilities and manpower needs, particularly for chronic disease:

  uses primarily incidence data.

  uses primarily prevalence data.

  could use both incidence and prevalence data equally.

  uses neither incidence data nor prevalence data.

Question 27The major disadvantage of crude rates is that:

  they may not allow for comparison of populations that differ in size.

  they do not permit comparison of populations that vary in composition.

  they are difficult to calculate from available data sources.

  All are correct.

Question 28Successful treatment programs that would shorten the duration of a disease primarily affect:

  the prevalence of the disease.

  the incidence of the disease.

  both the incidence and the prevalence of the disease.

  neither the incidence nor the prevalence of the disease.

Question 29Which of the following terms is expressed as a ratio (as distinguished from a proportion)?

  Male Births / Male + Female Births

  Female Births / Male + Female Births

  Male Births / Female Births

  Female Births / Male + Female Births and Male Births / Male + Female Births

Question 30Estimating the frequency of exposure:

  uses primarily incidence data.

  uses primarily prevalence data.

  ould use both incidence and prevalence data equally.

  uses neither incidence data nor prevalence data.

Question 31Marital status is an important descriptive epidemiologic variable because it is:

  associated with high suicide rates among married females.

  theorized to be a selective factor in health.

  theorized to be a protective factor in health.

  theorized to be a protective and selective factor in health.

Question 32Which of Mill’s four canons suggests that there is an association between frequency of disease and the potency of a causative factor? 

  Difference

  Agreement

  Concomitant variation

  Residues

Question 33Large international variations in rates of infectious and communicable diseases as well as other conditions are most likely explained by:

  differences in climate.

  differences in cultural factors.

  national dietary habits.

  access to health care.

  All are correct.

Question 34Which of the following is not a characteristic of epidemiology?

  It provides the basis for planning and evaluation of health services.

  It allows causal inference from descriptive data.

  It allows comparisons by age, sex, and race.

  It uses case reports, case series, and cross-sectional studies.

  It identifies problems to be studied by analytic methods.

Question 35Which of the following statements about case clustering is incorrect.

  It is of indeterminate significance for rare diseases, because clusters may occur by chance alone.

  It suggests common exposure of a group of people to an etiologic agent.

  It is called temporal clustering for geographic concentrations of cases.

  It has been shown for angiosarcoma and vaginal carcinoma.

Question 36Information about the cause of death listed on a death certificate may be unreliable because: 

  the cause of death may be unclear.

  certain diseases carry a stigma.

  diagnostic criteria may lack standardization.

  assignment of the cause of death may be arbitrary.

  All are correct.

Question 37Morbidity surveys of the general population:

  include the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

  collect data on the health status of a population group.

  typically use a scientifically designed representative sample.

  All are correct.

Question 38What data source has the advantage of being almost complete in the United States?

  Reportable disease statistics

  Mortality statistics

  Birth statistics

  Mortality statistics and birth statistics

Question 39Which of the following is not one of the four criteria for the quality of epidemiologic data?

  The nature of the data

  The completeness of the data

  The reason the data are collected

  The availability of the data

Question 40Which of the following is not included in data on morbidity in the U.S. armed forces?

  The results of routine physical examinations

  Useful population estimates of disease frequency

  The results of selective service examinations

  Information from military hospitalization records

Question 41Which of the following are not examples of assumptions for the chi-square statistic? 

  Each entity contributes to only one cell of the contingency table.

  Expected frequency should be less than 5.

  It does not rely on having continuous normally-distributed data.

  None are correct.

Question 42Which of the following tests whether variances are homogeneous?

  Levene’s test

  Bartlett’s test

  Neither Levene’s nor Bartlett’s test

  Both Levene’s and Bartlett’s test

Question 43If a distribution is multimodal, what does this mean?

  It will not be a normal distribution.

  The data have been entered incorrectly.

  It will be a normal distribution.

  It will have to be checked with a Levene’s test.

Question 44Quantitative research involves the use of which of the following?

  Language

  Letters

  Numbers

  Description

Question 45Which is an assumption of chi-square?

  That the data are normally distributed.

  That each subject contributes data to only one cell.

  That the data are continuous.

  That there is little variability among the data.

Question 46Which of the following are assumptions underlying the use of parametric tests (based on the normal distribution)?

  The data should be normally distributed.

  The samples being tested should have approximately equal variances.

  The data should be at least interval level.

  All are correct.

Question 47What does independence of data mean?

  That we must never collect two sets of data from one person.

  That independent researchers must collect the data.

  That scores from one participant are free from influences from other participants.

  That scores in one condition are free from influences from other conditions.

Question 48A calculated value of chi-square:

  Compares the frequencies of categories of items in a sample to the frequencies that are expected in the population.

  Compares the frequencies of categories in the population to those expected in the sample.

  Compares the mean number of categories in a sample to those in the population.

  Compares the mean number of frequencies in a population to those in the sample.

Question 49The research process is comprised of five stages. Which of the following is not one of those stages?

  Data collection

  Generate theory

  Analysis

  Dispersion

Question 50Which of the following is not an assumption of a parametric test?

  Normally distributed data

  Homogeneity of variance

  Dependence

  Independence