Every problem in the chapter beside the book’s answer, a chapter at a time as you scroll.
Chapter 12: Epidemiology for Informing Population/Community Health Decisions
10 problems · 0 figures12-1 §12.RQ source ↗
Which of the following activities best defines epidemiology?
- a.Prescribing prophylactic antibiotics for an individual suspected of having been exposed to anthrax
- b.Teaching a community class to those newly diagnosed with diabetes
- c.Recommending that a restaurant temporarily close for deep cleaning after implicating it as the source of a norovirus outbreak
- d.Encouraging families in the community to eat dinner together every night
Answer
C. Recommending that a restaurant temporarily close for deep cleaning after implicating it as the source of a norovirus outbreak
Epidemiology includes assessment of the distribution (including describing demographic characteristics of an affected population), determinants (including a study of possible risk factors), and application to control health problems (such as closing a restaurant).
12-2 §12.RQ source ↗
Which factors make up the epidemiological triad?
- a.Agent, host, environment
- b.Person, place, time
- c.Source, mode of transmission, host
- d.Portal of entry, agent, portal of exit
Answer
A. Agent, host, environment
The epidemiologic triad of disease causation refers to agent-host-environment.
12-3 §12.RQ source ↗
The school nurse is developing a plan to reduce direct transmission of disease. Which mode of transmission will be included in this plan?
- a.Droplet spread
- b.Foodborne
- c.Mosquito borne
- d.Surface spread
Answer
A. Droplet spread
Direct transmission occurs when an infectious agent is transmitted by direct contact or droplet spread. Droplet spread is considered direct transmission as the particles travel only a short distance and do not remain suspended in the air for long periods of time or distance.
12-4 §12.RQ source ↗
Which description of disease activity in a single area corresponds to endemic levels of disease?
- a.There are usually 20–30 cases each week, and this past week there were 29 cases.
- b.There are usually fewer than 20 cases per year, and this past week there were 2 cases.
- c.There are usually up to 10 cases per week, and this past week there were 40 cases.
- d.There are usually 100,000 cases worldwide each month, and this past month there were 10 million cases worldwide.
Answer
A. There are usually 20–30 cases each week, and this past week there were 29 cases.
Endemic refers to the continual and constant presence of a disease within a given geographic area. It may also be referred to as the usual rate of disease at any given time.
12-5 §12.RQ source ↗
What type of study is the public health nurse using to collect exposure and lifestyle information to assess the relationship between these factors and consequent occurrence of disease?
- a.Experimental
- b.Cross-sectional
- c.Cohort
- d.Case-control
Answer
C. Cohort
A study that assesses exposure and documents subsequent occurrence of disease in a group who all have the same disease is an observational cohort study.
12-6 §12.RQ source ↗
What is the hallmark feature of an analytic study in epidemiology?
- a.Use of an appropriate comparison group
- b.Randomization in recruiting study participants
- c.Confirmation of diagnosis via lab testing
- d.Testing a hypothesis
Answer
A. Use of an appropriate comparison group
The hallmark feature of an analytic epidemiologic study is use of an appropriate comparison group.
12-7 §12.RQ source ↗
What type of study randomly assigns an individual to receive the currently available formulation of a blood pressure medication or the newly formulated slow-release formulation of the blood pressure medication?
- a.Experimental
- b.Observational
- c.Case-control
- d.Cohort
Answer
A. Experimental
A study in which subjects are randomized into two intervention groups and monitored to identify health outcomes is a clinical trial, which is a type of experimental study.
12-8 §12.RQ source ↗
Which action highlights Florence Nightingale’s role as an epidemiologist?
- a.Dressing soldiers’ infected wounds
- b.Connecting poor sanitation with negative health outcomes
- c.Developing training schools for nurses and midwives
- d.Changing linens and frequently bathing clients
Answer
B. Connecting poor sanitation with negative health outcomes
Nightingale, the founder of professional nursing, engaged in epidemiological work by using statistics to identify a connection between poor sanitation and negative health outcomes. Nightingale gathered data to demonstrate that her sanitation reforms reduced deaths in military hospitals in Crimea.
12-9 §12.RQ source ↗
In which stage of disease progression would the nurse classify a client who has elevated blood pressure but no symptoms?
- a.Susceptibility stage
- b.Subclinical stage
- c.Clinical stage
- d.Carrier stage
Answer
B. Subclinical stage
In the subclinical stage, individuals have no overt symptoms. In infectious diseases, this stage includes an incubation period during which the pathogen multiplies to produce clinical symptoms. In noninfectious disease, it includes a latency period.
12-10 §12.RQ source ↗
The public health nurse is studying the proportion of the population in a certain county that had pneumonia during the winter months. Which epidemiological measure will the nurse use?
- a.Attack rate
- b.Incidence rate
- c.Prevalence rate
- d.Risk ratio
Answer
C. Prevalence rate
The prevalence rate is the proportion of a population with a health condition, such as pneumonia, at a certain point in time or time interval, such as the winter months.
Loading chapter 13…
Problems and answers are adapted from Population Health for Nurses by Jessica Ochs, Sherry L. Roper and Susan M. Schwartz, OpenStax, and are used under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/population-health/pages/1-introduction. Illustrations: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This adaptation is released under the same licence, is non-commercial, and is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by OpenStax or Rice University.