Methods/ Study Design
Which study design is best for rare diseases? This type of study selects participants based on their outcome status first and then determines their exposure status.
Case-control study
What is a case-definition and what criteria does it include?
Use of a common case definition allows for standardization of the cases of interest.
A case definition includes criteria for person, place, time.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Which day did the World Health Organization declare COVID-19 a pandemic? (+/- 2 days)
March 11, 2020
This 19th-century physician is known as the father of epidemiology for tracing a cholera outbreak to a contaminated water pump in London.
John Snow
What is the current global population? (+/- 500 million)
8.3 billion
What type of study assesses exposure and outcome at the same time?
Cross-sectional study
The first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population.
An index case or patient zero
Which infectious disease kills most people worldwide?
Tuberculosis
What is the full name of a graphical way of representing causal relationships between an exposure and an outcome?
Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
What is the most commonly used illicit drug/substance in the US
Marijuana
What is one strength and one limitation for RCTs?
Advantages: demonstrate cause-effect relationship, faster and cheaper than cohort, investigators can control exposure levels, often viewed as gold standard
Disadvantages: more resource intensive, only ethically appropriate for some RQs, many interventions not suitable for blinding, limited generalizability
A disease that is constantly present in a population is:
A. Epidemic
B. Pandemic
C. Sporadic
D. Endemic
D. Endemic
As of March 2026, Kent, South-East England saw at least 34 cases and two deaths reported due to an outbreak. What was this outbreak?
Menigococcal Meningitis
The epidemiologic measure representing the average number of secondary cases generated by one infected individual in a fully susceptible population is called R0. Which of these have the highest r0?
A. COVID-19
B. Measles
C. Mumps
D. Chickenpox
B. Measles
What is the name of a metric of burden of disease that represents the years of healthy life lost to illness, disability, or early death?
DALY (Disability-adjusted life year): DALYs = Years of life lost + years lived with disability
Define specificity and sensitivity.
Sensitivity measures the ability to correctly identify true positives (correctly identify those with a disease)
Specificity measures the ability to identify true negatives (correctly identify those without a disease)
When a high enough percentage of a population is vaccinated or immune, the entire community is protected. What is this called?
Herd immunity
Earlier this year, an outbreak occurred in East India. This illness presented with fever, headaches, muscle pain, sore throat, and severe neurological issues like dizziness and confusion. What was it?
Nipah Virus
What is a test you do when you have three categorical exposures and a continuous outcome?
ANOVA
List 3 of the 4 main types of epidemic curves used in outbreak investigations based on patterns of exposure.
Epidemiological study designs are broadly classified into two categories. Name these two categories and provide at least two examples of study designs within each category.
Observational studies- cohort study, case-control study, cross-sectional study
Experimental (interventional) studies- RCT, field trial, community trial
List the 3 of the 5 main modes of transmission for infectious diseases recognized in epidemiology.
In 2024–2025, several countries reported rising measles outbreaks, largely attributed to declining vaccination coverage below the herd immunity threshold. What is the approximate percentage of population immunity required to prevent sustained measles transmission? (According to the WHO and CDC) (+/- 5%)
95%
What is the full name (non abbreviated) of an act that was established in 1996 which set federal standards to protect sensitive health information from disclosure without the patient's consent in the US?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
What is the non-parametric method to estimate the probability of survival accounting for censoring?
Kaplan-Meier