Epidemiology terms Exam Questions with Latest Update

Etiology - ANSWER-the science of causes, causality Multifactorial etiology - ANSWER-a combination of causes may be required to produce the effect etiology Acute - ANSWER-a health effect from a brief exposure of high intensity Chronic - ANSWER-a health-related state for a lasting time Morbidity - ANSWER-a departure from a state of well-being, sickness/illness Mortality - ANSWER-related to death Endemic disease - ANSWER-constant presence of a disease or infectious agent within geographic area/population group Epidemic - ANSWER-occurrence in a community/region of health related illness cases, behavior, or events clearly in excess of normal expectancy Pandemic - ANSWER-an epidemic occurring over a wide area, usually affecting large proportion of population Monitoring - ANSWER-performance/analysis of routine measurements aimed at detecting changes in environment/health status of populations Trend - ANSWER-long-term movement in an ordered series; movement shows consistent direction over a long term Surveillance - ANSWER-ongoing scrutiny using practicable, uniform, and rapid methods rather than methods of complete accuracy; used to detect changes in disease trend/distribution Eradication (of disease) - ANSWER-termination of all transmission of infection by extermination of the infectious agent through surveillance and containment Sensitivity - ANSWER-proportion of truly diseased persons identified by screening test; a measure of the probability of correctly diagnosing or the probability that any given case will be identified with a screening test (synonym: true-positive rate)