Chapter 12: Epidemiology (Stanhope:
Public Health Nursing, 8th Ed)
The factors, exposures, characteristics, and behaviors that determine patterns of disease
are described using:
a. Descriptive epidemiology
b. Analytic epidemiology
c. Distribution
d. Determinants - correct answer-ANS: D
Determinants may be individual, relational, social, communal, or environmental.
To understand the causes of health and disease, epidemiology studies:
a. Individuals
b. Families
c. Groups
d. Populations - correct answer-ANS: D
Epidemiology monitors health of populations, understands determinants of health and
disease in communities, and investigates and evaluates interventions to prevent disease and
maintain health.
When a nurse examines birth and death certificates during an epidemiologic investigation,
what data category is being used?
a. Routinely collected data
b. Data collected for other purposes but useful for epidemiologic research
c. Original data collected for specific epidemiologic studies
d. Surveillance data - correct answer-ANS: A
These are examples of data collected routinely.
An epidemiologist wanting to know what caused severe diarrhea and vomiting in several
people at a local banquet would be using:
a. Descriptive epidemiology
b. Analytic epidemiology
c. Distribution
d. Determinants - correct answer-ANS: B
Analytic epidemiology is directed toward understanding the etiology of the disease.
Which is an example of an epidemic?
a. Bird flu in China
b. Adult obesity in the United States
c. An isolated case of smallpox in Africa
, d. The nursing shortage in the United States - correct answer-ANS: B
It is estimated that 30% of the adults in the United States are obese. According to the CDC,
this is an epidemic.
John Snow is called the father of epidemiology because of his work with:
a. Cholera
b. Malaria
c. Polio
d. Germ theory - correct answer-ANS: A
John Snow investigated the spread of cholera in the mid-nineteenth century.
The interaction between an agent, a host, and the environment is called:
a. Natural history of disease
b. Risk
c. Web of causality
d. The epidemiologic triangle - correct answer-ANS: D
The epidemiologic triangle consists of the interaction between an agent, a host, and the
environment.
Public health professionals refer to three levels of prevention as tied to specific stages in the:
a. Epidemiologic triangle
b. Web of causation
c. Natural history of disease
d. Surveillance process - correct answer-ANS: C
The natural history of disease is the course of the disease process from onset to resolution.
The three levels of prevention provide a framework commonly used in public health practice
to depict this process.
Which is an example of an agent in the epidemiologic triangle?
a. Human population distribution
b. Salmonella
c. Genetic susceptibility
d. Climate - correct answer-ANS: B
An agent includes infectious organisms.
When studying chronic disease, the multifactorial etiology of illness is considered. What
does this imply?
a. Genetics and molecular structure of disease is paramount.
b. Single organisms that cause a disease, such as cholera, must be studied in more detail.
c. Focus should be on the factors or combinations and levels of factors contributing to
disease.
d. The recent rise in infectious disease is the main focus. - correct answer-ANS: C
Multifactorial etiology implies a focus on combinations and levels of factors.
Public Health Nursing, 8th Ed)
The factors, exposures, characteristics, and behaviors that determine patterns of disease
are described using:
a. Descriptive epidemiology
b. Analytic epidemiology
c. Distribution
d. Determinants - correct answer-ANS: D
Determinants may be individual, relational, social, communal, or environmental.
To understand the causes of health and disease, epidemiology studies:
a. Individuals
b. Families
c. Groups
d. Populations - correct answer-ANS: D
Epidemiology monitors health of populations, understands determinants of health and
disease in communities, and investigates and evaluates interventions to prevent disease and
maintain health.
When a nurse examines birth and death certificates during an epidemiologic investigation,
what data category is being used?
a. Routinely collected data
b. Data collected for other purposes but useful for epidemiologic research
c. Original data collected for specific epidemiologic studies
d. Surveillance data - correct answer-ANS: A
These are examples of data collected routinely.
An epidemiologist wanting to know what caused severe diarrhea and vomiting in several
people at a local banquet would be using:
a. Descriptive epidemiology
b. Analytic epidemiology
c. Distribution
d. Determinants - correct answer-ANS: B
Analytic epidemiology is directed toward understanding the etiology of the disease.
Which is an example of an epidemic?
a. Bird flu in China
b. Adult obesity in the United States
c. An isolated case of smallpox in Africa
, d. The nursing shortage in the United States - correct answer-ANS: B
It is estimated that 30% of the adults in the United States are obese. According to the CDC,
this is an epidemic.
John Snow is called the father of epidemiology because of his work with:
a. Cholera
b. Malaria
c. Polio
d. Germ theory - correct answer-ANS: A
John Snow investigated the spread of cholera in the mid-nineteenth century.
The interaction between an agent, a host, and the environment is called:
a. Natural history of disease
b. Risk
c. Web of causality
d. The epidemiologic triangle - correct answer-ANS: D
The epidemiologic triangle consists of the interaction between an agent, a host, and the
environment.
Public health professionals refer to three levels of prevention as tied to specific stages in the:
a. Epidemiologic triangle
b. Web of causation
c. Natural history of disease
d. Surveillance process - correct answer-ANS: C
The natural history of disease is the course of the disease process from onset to resolution.
The three levels of prevention provide a framework commonly used in public health practice
to depict this process.
Which is an example of an agent in the epidemiologic triangle?
a. Human population distribution
b. Salmonella
c. Genetic susceptibility
d. Climate - correct answer-ANS: B
An agent includes infectious organisms.
When studying chronic disease, the multifactorial etiology of illness is considered. What
does this imply?
a. Genetics and molecular structure of disease is paramount.
b. Single organisms that cause a disease, such as cholera, must be studied in more detail.
c. Focus should be on the factors or combinations and levels of factors contributing to
disease.
d. The recent rise in infectious disease is the main focus. - correct answer-ANS: C
Multifactorial etiology implies a focus on combinations and levels of factors.
