ATI RN
Questions on Epidemiology Questions
Question 1 of 5
Health-care providers might be important sources of surveillance data used by public health officials, and they should receive feedback to close the surveillance loop as a courtesy; however, the results almost never have any relevance to patient care provided by those health-care providers.
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Feedback informs patient care, contradicting the statement.
Question 2 of 5
Which statement is true concerning tuberculosis (TB) infections in the United States?
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The principle of multicausation emphasizes that an infectious agent alone is not sufficient to cause disease; the agent must be transmitted within a conducive environment to a susceptible host. Mycobacterium tuberculosis kills cells. M. tuberculosis has low infectivity, low pathogenicity, but high virulence if untreated.
Question 3 of 5
Which would be one of the first steps in attempting to control a disease?
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Standardized definitions of diseases are necessary for public health monitoring and surveillance across all levels of government. Diseases are defined and classified according to confirmed cases, probable cases, laboratory-confirmed cases, clinically compatible cases, epidemiologically linked cases, genetic typing, and clinical case definition. Once defined, disease occurrence can be compared across time, populations, and geographic areas, and appropriate control efforts can be implemented.
Question 4 of 5
When trying to determine whether the swine flu outbreak was getting worse, which rate should be carefully observed?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: The incidence rate of new cases would be most useful for detecting short-term acute disease changes, because the swine flu duration is usually relatively short. The prevalence rate is the number of all cases of a specific disease or condition in a population at a given point in time. Crude death rates summarize the occurrence of mortality. An age-specific death rate characterizes the death rates of a particular age group in the population.
Question 5 of 5
A researcher, interested in the onset of early menses, compared the life experiences and history of 1000 14-year-old girls, half of whom had monthly periods and half of whom did not, to determine what variables might be observed. Which would be the most appropriate categorization of this study?
Correct Answer: C
Rationale: When a study looks at individuals with a particular condition in comparison with those who do not have the disease, based on their exposures to various life situations, it is a retrospective study; that is, the study requires participants to look back at previous experiences. A cross-sectional study examines relationships between potential causal factors and disease at a specific time. A prospective study monitors a group of disease-free individuals to determine if and when disease occurs. A true experiment involves both an experimental group who receives an intervention and a control group who does not receive an intervention.