1) What is a pandemic?

2) What is endemic?

3) What is Typhoid Fever?

4) In what year did the surgeon general first report the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer?

5) List at least 5 portals of entry into the human body.

6) Describe Herd immunity.

7) What are the top three chronic diseases in the United States?

8) Define incidence rate?

9) What is a confidence interval?

10) Describe the dependency ratio.

11) What do vital records refer to?

12) Give the formula for calculating crude mortality rate.

13) Give the formula for calculating infant mortality rate.

14) What does the risk ratio calculate?

15) Define selection bias. 

 

• What is a pandemic?

Pandemic is an epidemic (rapid spread of disease to a large number of people in a given population/area over a short period of time) occurring worldwide. It spreads across countries or continents affecting more people causing economic and social problem because many people are sick and unable to work.

• What is endemic?

Endemic is the usual prevalence of disease or infection in a given area or population. One example is Malaria which is endemic in large part of Africa and some areas of South America.

• What is Typhoid Fever?

Typhoid fever is an acute illness cause by a bacteria called Salmonella Typhi. The bacteria are deposited in food and water by human carrier and then spread to other people in the area. Contaminated food and water or close contact with infected person cause typhoid fever with signs and symptoms of high fever (possibly reaching as high as 40.5°C), headache, stomach pain, constipation/diarrhea.

• In what year did the surgeon general first report the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer?

In January 11, 1964, the first report of the Surgeons General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health was released. It was concluded that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung and laryngeal cancer in men, a probable cause of lung cancer in women, and the most important cause of chronic bronchitis. (cdc.gov)

• List at least 5 portals of entry into the human body.

1. Respiratory tract through inhalation
2. Mucous membrane such as the eyes through absorption
3. Gastrointestinal tract through ingestion (by eating or drinking)
4. Through inoculation injury (needlestick injury)
5. Through introduction by insertion of medical device into the body

• Describe Herd immunity.

It occurs when a large portion of population in a community (the herd) become immune to a disease making it unlikely to spread the disease. Threshold proportion is the percentage of the population that must qualified a disease before it can be spread. Thus, if this threshold is less than the percentage of the immune population, disease spread will reduce. Herd immunity can be carry through by means of vaccines and natural infection. Vaccines generates immunity without causing illness. Natural infection is when people have recovered from an illness and their bodies have developed antibodies against future infection. Herd immunity concept makes it possible to protect the population from a disease.

• What are the top three chronic diseases in the United States?

Chronic diseases are conditions that requires continuing medical attention and/or restriction of activities of daily living.

1. Heart disease - stroke and other cardiovascular diseases cause 1 in 3 deaths. This diseases take an economic toll costing $214 billion a year in US healthcare system.
2. Cancer - is the second leading cause of death in United States. More than 1.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer and nearly 600,000 die each year.
3. Diabetes - More than 34 million Americans have diabetes and 1 in 4 of them don't know they have it.

Reference: (cdc.gov)

• Define incidence rate?

Incidence rate describe the rate of new cases (affected population) of a condition observed within a given period in relation to the total population (target population) in the same period. It determines the prevalence and speed of manifestation of a disease.

• What is a confidence interval?

Confidence interval refers to the probability that a population parameter will fall between a set of values for a certain proportion of time. It measures the degree of certainty or uncertainty in a sampling method commonly with a confidence level of 95% or 99%. It is a way to indicate measurements precision in epidemiology.

(investopedia.com)

• Describe the dependency ratio.

Dependency ratio compares the number of dependent individuals by age to the total population. It measures people between the age 0-14 and above 65 to those who are 15-64 to show who is and who is not working indicating how unemployment causes economic burden.

• What do vital records refer to?

Vital records refer to records such as birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and divorce decree, wills and the like. These serve as legal documents for the person's named thereon and they are also used to study the demographics and health of a population and population subgroups. Individual vital records may also be used administratively as the basis for initiating maternal and child health services or for epidemiologic investigation of disease outbreaks or causes of accidents and injuries.

• Give the formula for calculating crude mortality rate.

Total number of deaths occurring during a given period of time x 100,000

Size of the population among which the deaths occurred

Example:

601,000 Total number of deaths in France in 2018 x 100,000 = 910.6 deaths per 100,000 population in 2018

66,000,000 Estimated population in France in 2018

• Give the formula for calculating infant mortality rate.

Number of deaths among children < 1 year of age reported during a given period of time x 1,000

Number of live births reported during the same time period

Example:

1,500 deaths among children < 1 year of age in state of Texas year 2018 x 1,000

200,000 live births in state of Texas year 2018

= 7.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in state of Texas year 2018

• What does the risk ratio calculate?

Risk ratio compares the risk of a health event which includes disease, injury, risk factor or death among a certain group with the risk among another group. Two groups are typically differentiated by demographic factor such as sex (male versus female) or by exposure to a suspected risk factor.

• Define selection bias. 

Selection bias occurs when the study population is not representative of the target population. Thus, the measure of risk or benefit does not accurately represent the target population. Selection bias occurs early on the selection of participants because of an error in the procedure used to select the subjects or for other reason why participants would like to participate in the study. Referral bias and self-selection bias are examples that occurs in research.