Disease Terms
John Snow is widely regarded as the founder of...
What is epidemiology?
Researchers select around 2,000 seniors from around the US to represent the entire population of the US in a study about how multivitamins affect cognitive decline. These participants are known as a...
What is a sample?
Bonus question! (not taught)
A study records the GPAs of high school students and finds that the most commonly occurring value is 4.0. What is this frequently occurring statistic known as?
What is the mode?
A city suddenly experiences an influx of salmonella cases after a sushi restaurant served contaminated salmon. This is known as a...
What is an outbreak?
There are approximately 41 million people worldwide who have HIV. Therefore, 41 million is the ___ of HIV.
What is prevalence?
A researcher wants to know what the relationship between optimism and longevity is and conducts a study to find out. The researcher measures optimism by asking participants to assess how positive they are from a scale of 1-10. The researcher then follows up with the participants for decades and records the total number of years that they have lived. In this study, optimism and longevity are known as what?
What are variables?
A student with the flu attends school while contagious. Over the next few days, several classmates who had close contact with the student also become sick. Epidemiologists investigate how the flu moved from the infected student to the other students. What epidemiological term describes the process by which the flu spread from the infected student to other people?
What is transmission?
The first documented occurrence of COVID-19 was from a 35 year old man who had just returned to the US from Wuhan, China. Officials closely monitored the progression and history of his disease, from his initial exposure to onset of symptoms to the outcome (being discharged from the hospital). This man is an example of a...
What is a case?
Researchers survey 5,000 high school students about the number of hours of sleep they get per night. If they want to find out whether the participants are getting enough sleep per night on average, which statistic should they calculate?
What is the mean?
During a school outbreak investigation, epidemiologists discover that several students who developed food poisoning all ate chicken salad from the same cafeteria station the day before becoming sick. Students who did not eat the chicken salad were much less likely to become ill. In this investigation, what term describes the students’ contact with the chicken salad that may have contributed to their illness?
What is exposure?
During the month of September, a school with 1,000 students identifies 25 new cases of influenza among students who were not previously sick. This means that 25 cases is the ___ for influenza in this school during the month of September.
What is incidence?
According to a study, 70% of drivers believe that they are better than average at driving, which is statistically impossible. What is the term for the systemic statistical error that this illustrates?
What is bias?
One day, Brian unknowingly drinks from a water fountain that is contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacteria. He begins to experience symptoms of nausea and vomiting 36 hours later. This delay of 36 hours is known as...
What is the incubation period?
A study finds that participants who do not meet the minimum healthy level of physical activity have a 20% increased chance of developing Type 2 diabetes. This study found that physical inactivity is a ____ for diabetes.
What is a risk factor?
In 1967, Thomas Homes and Richard Rahe conducted a survey and found that there was a relationship between experiencing major life events (both positive and negative); the more major life events a person experienced, the more likely they were to have a major health breakdown. What kind of statistical relationship did this study establish between experiencing major life events and the probability of having a health breakdown?
Bonus: What statistical relationship can we NOT establish from this study?
What is correlation?
Bonus: What is causation?