POPM 3240 Final Exam Questions With
Guaranteed Pass Solutions 2026/2027
Updated.
What is epidemiology? - Answer the study of the frequency, distribution, and determinants of
health and disease in populations, and the application of this study to control health problems
What does the application of epidemiological methods allow us to understand? - Answer -
disease occurrence (frequency, burden of disease)
-causes of disease (etiology)
-screening for disease
-accuracy and interpretation of clinical diagnostics/tests (false positives and negatives)
-determine the prognosis for many diseases (likely outcome of disease)
-clinical effectiveness of treatments
-health promotion, disease prevention, and prolongation of high-quality life
Define health - Answer a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Health is more than just the absence of disease, it is a state in which an individual is? - Answer
both physically and psychologically well
Define disease - Answer -a derangement in the function of the whole body of the host or any
of its parts
OR
-a physiological/psychological dysfunction
define illness - Answer a subjective state of the person who feels aware of not being well
1) Are patterns of disease static?
2) As a result, what do epidemiologists and health officials need to continue to do? - Answer
1) No, they can change drastically
2) monitor the prevalence of disease and understand how diseases are spread
1) What is cholera?
2) When did historians begin to document outbreaks of cholera?
,3) What groups of people are still affected by cholera outbreaks? - Answer 1) an acute
diarrheal illness that causes death within hours if left untreated
2) the 17th century
3) developing nations and indigenous populations
1) When does primary prevention occur?
2) What does primary prevention focus on?
3) At the level of primary prevention, what do we aim to do?
4) Examples? - Answer 1) before the onset of disease, where we try to prevent the
development of a disease altogether
2) health promotion (education to promote ways to stay healthy and avoid risky behaviours)
and health protection (ensuring the safety of food, water, air and the environment)
3) increase the individual's resistance to disease, and decrease the individual's susceptibility to
disease
4) lab personnel wearing lab coats gloves and goggles, anti-smoking campaigns, free condoms,
and other contraceptives in university/college dorms
1) What is secondary prevention all about?
2) Examples? - Answer 1) early detection of disease through screening (looking for early signs
of disease before it presents as a real problem)
2) doing stool tests for unseen presence of blood (a possible sign of colon cancer),
mammograms, and routine blood pressure checks
1) What does tertiary prevention focus on?
2) Examples? - Answer 1) addressing the results of clinical illness in order to lessen the impact
of the disease (focused on treatment of signs and symptoms of disease)
2) taking ibuprofen to manage joint pain, getting physical rehabilitation (or other forms of
rehabilitation such as psychosocial, medical, occupational), and assisting those suffering from
cardiac events (e.g. stroke, heart attack) to lose weight to prevent further complications
1) What has epidemiology been used throughout the ages to do?
2) Who are three notable epidemiologists and which diseases were they involved with? -
Answer 1) investigate, characterize, and solve numerous human and animal health problems
2) Ignaz Semmelweis (childhood fever), Edward Jenner (smallpox), and John Snow (cholera)
1) What was Dr. James Lind?
2) What did Dr. Lind's trials show? - Answer 1) a doctor in the Royal navy, and was named 'the
father of nautical medicine' after conducting the first-ever randomized controlled trial to
identify the cure for scurvy
,2) that citrus fruits cured scurvy
1) Who was Sir Percival Pott?
2) What was his observation related to?
3) What did he observe? - Answer 1) an English physician practicing in London, who made one
of the earliest accounts of a cause and effect linkage for an occupational carcinogen
2) chimney-sweeper's cancer (soot-wart)
3) -that chimney-sweepers had to go into narrow, hot chimneys to clean, where they were
bruised, burned, and almost suffocated
-when they got into puberty they were at very high risk of developing a disease
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 19th century? - Answer -John Snow and
the Broad St. pump
-communicable disease epidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1950s? - Answer -chronic disease
epidemiology
-seroepidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1980s? - Answer -clinical epidemiology
-pharmacoepidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1990s? - Answer -molecular
epidemiology
-genetic epidemiology
-social epidemiology
1) In the balance between health and disease, what is this balance between? (specifically)
2) What three factors present at the same time result in a high likelihood of disease? - Answer
1) the host, agent, and the environment
2) the agent to be present, a favourable environment for transmission, and a susceptible host
1) What are Gordis' three key factors of disease typically visualized as?
2) The interactions among these factors dictate the impact of any infection at what levels? -
Answer 1) the Epidemiological Triad
2) both individual and population
, 1) Give some examples of different types of infectious agents
2) What are the two main modes of transmission? - Answer 1) bacteria, parasites, viruses,
fungi, prions
2) direct and indirect
What is horizontal transmission? - Answer transmission of an infectious agent between
members of the same species through direct or indirect contact
1) Give an example of how horizontal transmission can occur directly
2) Give examples of how horizontal transmission can occur indirectly - Answer 1) person to
person contact, including sexual transmission
2) -ingestion
-aerial (droplet, airborne)
-formites (agents living on inanimate objects i.e. doorknob)
-latrogenic (caused by medical exam or treatment)
What do the terms single, multiple, and continuous exposures refer to? - Answer the
frequency with which an individual is exposed to the given infectious agent causing disease
What is a vertical transmission? Examples? - Answer transmission of an infectious agent from
mother to embryo, fetus or baby before, during, or just after pregnancy
-infectious agents being passed in ova or through baby's ingestion of breast milk
1) What is a zoonotic disease?
2) What percentage of emerging diseases today are zoonotic? - Answer 1) any disease and/or
infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to man (i.e. diseases in nature
that are shared by vertebrate animals and humans)
2) 75%
1) Why are vectors particularly important in zoonotic diseases?
2) What is a vector? - Answer 1) they are primarily responsible for transmitting the disease
from the original host or reservoir (the vertebrate animal) to the second host (human/man)
2) an insect, or any living carrier, that transports an infectious agent from an infected individual
to a susceptible individual, or its food, or immediate surroundings
Give an example of a vector - Answer the West Nile Virus originates in birds (specifically, crows
and jays), and is picked up by mosquitoes in the blood and transmitted to humans when bitten
by the infected mosquito
Guaranteed Pass Solutions 2026/2027
Updated.
What is epidemiology? - Answer the study of the frequency, distribution, and determinants of
health and disease in populations, and the application of this study to control health problems
What does the application of epidemiological methods allow us to understand? - Answer -
disease occurrence (frequency, burden of disease)
-causes of disease (etiology)
-screening for disease
-accuracy and interpretation of clinical diagnostics/tests (false positives and negatives)
-determine the prognosis for many diseases (likely outcome of disease)
-clinical effectiveness of treatments
-health promotion, disease prevention, and prolongation of high-quality life
Define health - Answer a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Health is more than just the absence of disease, it is a state in which an individual is? - Answer
both physically and psychologically well
Define disease - Answer -a derangement in the function of the whole body of the host or any
of its parts
OR
-a physiological/psychological dysfunction
define illness - Answer a subjective state of the person who feels aware of not being well
1) Are patterns of disease static?
2) As a result, what do epidemiologists and health officials need to continue to do? - Answer
1) No, they can change drastically
2) monitor the prevalence of disease and understand how diseases are spread
1) What is cholera?
2) When did historians begin to document outbreaks of cholera?
,3) What groups of people are still affected by cholera outbreaks? - Answer 1) an acute
diarrheal illness that causes death within hours if left untreated
2) the 17th century
3) developing nations and indigenous populations
1) When does primary prevention occur?
2) What does primary prevention focus on?
3) At the level of primary prevention, what do we aim to do?
4) Examples? - Answer 1) before the onset of disease, where we try to prevent the
development of a disease altogether
2) health promotion (education to promote ways to stay healthy and avoid risky behaviours)
and health protection (ensuring the safety of food, water, air and the environment)
3) increase the individual's resistance to disease, and decrease the individual's susceptibility to
disease
4) lab personnel wearing lab coats gloves and goggles, anti-smoking campaigns, free condoms,
and other contraceptives in university/college dorms
1) What is secondary prevention all about?
2) Examples? - Answer 1) early detection of disease through screening (looking for early signs
of disease before it presents as a real problem)
2) doing stool tests for unseen presence of blood (a possible sign of colon cancer),
mammograms, and routine blood pressure checks
1) What does tertiary prevention focus on?
2) Examples? - Answer 1) addressing the results of clinical illness in order to lessen the impact
of the disease (focused on treatment of signs and symptoms of disease)
2) taking ibuprofen to manage joint pain, getting physical rehabilitation (or other forms of
rehabilitation such as psychosocial, medical, occupational), and assisting those suffering from
cardiac events (e.g. stroke, heart attack) to lose weight to prevent further complications
1) What has epidemiology been used throughout the ages to do?
2) Who are three notable epidemiologists and which diseases were they involved with? -
Answer 1) investigate, characterize, and solve numerous human and animal health problems
2) Ignaz Semmelweis (childhood fever), Edward Jenner (smallpox), and John Snow (cholera)
1) What was Dr. James Lind?
2) What did Dr. Lind's trials show? - Answer 1) a doctor in the Royal navy, and was named 'the
father of nautical medicine' after conducting the first-ever randomized controlled trial to
identify the cure for scurvy
,2) that citrus fruits cured scurvy
1) Who was Sir Percival Pott?
2) What was his observation related to?
3) What did he observe? - Answer 1) an English physician practicing in London, who made one
of the earliest accounts of a cause and effect linkage for an occupational carcinogen
2) chimney-sweeper's cancer (soot-wart)
3) -that chimney-sweepers had to go into narrow, hot chimneys to clean, where they were
bruised, burned, and almost suffocated
-when they got into puberty they were at very high risk of developing a disease
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 19th century? - Answer -John Snow and
the Broad St. pump
-communicable disease epidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1950s? - Answer -chronic disease
epidemiology
-seroepidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1980s? - Answer -clinical epidemiology
-pharmacoepidemiology
What were the epidemiological advancements of the 1990s? - Answer -molecular
epidemiology
-genetic epidemiology
-social epidemiology
1) In the balance between health and disease, what is this balance between? (specifically)
2) What three factors present at the same time result in a high likelihood of disease? - Answer
1) the host, agent, and the environment
2) the agent to be present, a favourable environment for transmission, and a susceptible host
1) What are Gordis' three key factors of disease typically visualized as?
2) The interactions among these factors dictate the impact of any infection at what levels? -
Answer 1) the Epidemiological Triad
2) both individual and population
, 1) Give some examples of different types of infectious agents
2) What are the two main modes of transmission? - Answer 1) bacteria, parasites, viruses,
fungi, prions
2) direct and indirect
What is horizontal transmission? - Answer transmission of an infectious agent between
members of the same species through direct or indirect contact
1) Give an example of how horizontal transmission can occur directly
2) Give examples of how horizontal transmission can occur indirectly - Answer 1) person to
person contact, including sexual transmission
2) -ingestion
-aerial (droplet, airborne)
-formites (agents living on inanimate objects i.e. doorknob)
-latrogenic (caused by medical exam or treatment)
What do the terms single, multiple, and continuous exposures refer to? - Answer the
frequency with which an individual is exposed to the given infectious agent causing disease
What is a vertical transmission? Examples? - Answer transmission of an infectious agent from
mother to embryo, fetus or baby before, during, or just after pregnancy
-infectious agents being passed in ova or through baby's ingestion of breast milk
1) What is a zoonotic disease?
2) What percentage of emerging diseases today are zoonotic? - Answer 1) any disease and/or
infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to man (i.e. diseases in nature
that are shared by vertebrate animals and humans)
2) 75%
1) Why are vectors particularly important in zoonotic diseases?
2) What is a vector? - Answer 1) they are primarily responsible for transmitting the disease
from the original host or reservoir (the vertebrate animal) to the second host (human/man)
2) an insect, or any living carrier, that transports an infectious agent from an infected individual
to a susceptible individual, or its food, or immediate surroundings
Give an example of a vector - Answer the West Nile Virus originates in birds (specifically, crows
and jays), and is picked up by mosquitoes in the blood and transmitted to humans when bitten
by the infected mosquito
