Demography & Epidemiology Basics
What are the three main components studied in demography
Fertility, mortality, and migration
What is the difference between internal and external migration?
Internal = within a country
External = across borders
Which study design can best establish causality?
Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT)
Which criteria requires that exposure precedes the outcome?
Temporality
What does sensitivity measure?
True positive rate
Which model explains the shift from infectious to chronic diseases?
The Epidemiological Transition Model
What model explains migration decisions as influenced by both negative and positive factors?
Push–Pull Model
What’s the main limitation of a cross-sectional study?
No cause–effect relationship
Which model compares what would happen with and without exposure?
Counterfactual Model
What happens to PPV when disease prevalence increases?
PPV increases
What policy framework promotes ageing populations staying active and employed?
The Active and Healthy Ageing initiative
What is the difference between horizontal and vertical equity?
Horizontal = equal treatment for equal needs
Vertical = different treatment for different needs
What’s the difference between random and systematic error?
Random affects precision
systematic affects accuracy
What are the 3 conditions for a confounder?
Associated with determinant
causes the outcome
not an intermediate variable
What does the ROC curve represent?
Trade-off between sensitivity and specificity
What EU demographic trend increase the burden of NCDs?
Population ageing / increasing life expectancy
What theory suggests the health impact of low SES accumulates with age?
Cumulative Disadvantage Theory
What’s the difference between internal and external validity?
Internal = accuracy within the study
External = generalisability beyond it
What is the difference between effect modification and confounding?
Effect modification is natural variation
confounding distorts the true relationship
How could a screening test with lower specificity still be valuable?
To avoid missing true cases (important in serious diseases)
What's the main difference between basics and applied demography?
Basic = statistical data collection
Applied = using data for policy and planning
Give two informal barriers migrants face when accessing healthcare.
Language barriers, discrimination, lack of awareness of the system, etc.
What type of bias occurs when participants are lost during follow-up?
Selection bias or attrition bias
What do synergism and antagonism describe?
Types of interactions between variables (greater/lesser combined effect)
Name two principles of good screening programs.
Early detection, cost-effectiveness, informed consent, targeted at-risk groups