EPIDEMIOLOGY EXAM

Exam #2 Study Guide

· Chapter 4

· Define Descriptive Epidemiology

· Answers who, what, when, where

· Different descriptive study designs - define, compare/contrast, identify strengths/weaknesses of each study design

· Ecologic study

· What is the ecologic fallacy?

· Case Report and Case Series

· Cross-Sectional Surveys

· Serial surveys

· Kinds of data in descriptive epidemiology

· Nominal

· Ordinal

· Discrete

· Continuous

Be able to define/identify/calculate (where applicable) and interpret the following:

· What is a ratio? A proportion? A rate?

· Incidence-density rates (person-time rate)

· Attack rate (cumulative incidence rate)

· Prevalence rate

· Crude and age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates

· Rationale for adjustments

· How to adjust

· Direct Method

· Indirect Method

· Standardized Morbidity (or Mortality) Ratio (SMR)

· Numerical methods to present epidemiological data

· Measures of central tendency

· Mean, median, mode

· Measures of dispersion

· Range, standard deviation

· Empirical rule (see p. 105-106)

· Measures of statistical association

· Correlation co-efficient

· Chapter 5

· Descriptive epidemiology and person, place, time

· Why is descriptive epidemiology helpful for health care administrators and/or health education specialists?

· Person

· Age

· Population pyramids

· Shapes of pyramids indicative of birth rates, mortality rates, socio-economic factors, etc.

· Dependency ratio – what is it, and its importance?

· Gender

· Race/Ethnicity

· Marital/family status

· Family structure

· Occupation

· Education

· Place

· How can utilize data based on place?

· Time trends – compare/contrast

· Secular trends

· Cyclic patterns

· Season trends

· Chapter 6 – General Health and Population Indicators

Be able to identify/define/calculate (where applicable) and interpret the following health indicators:

· Birth

· Birth rate

· Fertility rate

· Total fertility rate

· Contraceptive prevalence

· Mortality

· Three things that generally cause death (see p. 159)

· Who certifies a death?

· Cause of death and death certificate data

· What data are on a death certificate?

· Types of mortality rates

· Crude mortality rate

· Cause-specific mortality rate

· Infant mortality rate

· Why is this a major health status indicator?

· Neonatal mortality rate –

· Post neonatal mortality rate

· Perinatal mortality rate

· Fetal death rate (stillbirth)

· Abortion rate

· Maternal mortality rate – Why is this a major health status indicator?

· Proportional mortality ratio (PMR)

· Case fatality ratio (CFR)

· Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)

· How to calculate YPLL?

· YPLL Rate – why use YPLL rate?