ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY
EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT
ANSWERS
Sir Percival Pott - ANSWER-first individual to describe an environmental cause of
cancer. He noticed that chimney sweeps had a high incidence of scrotal cancer and
established an occupational hygiene control measure
John Snow - ANSWER-He linked a cholera outbreak in London to contaminated water
from the Thames River
study designs in environmental epidemiology - ANSWER--mortality experience
-physical examinations
-self-report questionnares
Odds Ratio - ANSWER-- the ratio of odds in favor of exposure among the cases (A/C)
to the odds in favor of the non-cases the controls (B/D)
-measure of association between exposure and outcome
Relative Risk - ANSWER--The ratio of the incidence rate of a disease or health outcome
in an exposed group to the incidence rate of the disease or condition in a nonexposed
group
-The measure or association between exposure and outcome used in cohort studies
Study endpoints - ANSWER--self reported disease
-medical records/clinical trials
-mortality records
environment in epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-all external factors
host in epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-what gives home to the agent
agent in the epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-cause of the illness
causality - ANSWER--What criteria need to be taken into account in moving from
association to causation between an agent factor (A) and a disease (B)?
-major goal of environmental epidemiology
-Central concern is to be able to assert that a causal association exists between an
agent factor and a disease in the host
Hill's criteria of Causality - ANSWER--strength of association
-plausibility - how reasonable
-specificity - how close a cause directly leads to a disease
EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT
ANSWERS
Sir Percival Pott - ANSWER-first individual to describe an environmental cause of
cancer. He noticed that chimney sweeps had a high incidence of scrotal cancer and
established an occupational hygiene control measure
John Snow - ANSWER-He linked a cholera outbreak in London to contaminated water
from the Thames River
study designs in environmental epidemiology - ANSWER--mortality experience
-physical examinations
-self-report questionnares
Odds Ratio - ANSWER-- the ratio of odds in favor of exposure among the cases (A/C)
to the odds in favor of the non-cases the controls (B/D)
-measure of association between exposure and outcome
Relative Risk - ANSWER--The ratio of the incidence rate of a disease or health outcome
in an exposed group to the incidence rate of the disease or condition in a nonexposed
group
-The measure or association between exposure and outcome used in cohort studies
Study endpoints - ANSWER--self reported disease
-medical records/clinical trials
-mortality records
environment in epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-all external factors
host in epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-what gives home to the agent
agent in the epidemiological triangle - ANSWER-cause of the illness
causality - ANSWER--What criteria need to be taken into account in moving from
association to causation between an agent factor (A) and a disease (B)?
-major goal of environmental epidemiology
-Central concern is to be able to assert that a causal association exists between an
agent factor and a disease in the host
Hill's criteria of Causality - ANSWER--strength of association
-plausibility - how reasonable
-specificity - how close a cause directly leads to a disease
