Exercises in epidemiology

1-Define the following items:

Public health, Community medicine, Epidemiology, Prevalence, Incidence, confounding factor, Risk factor, Relative
risk, Attributable risk, screening, case finding, validity, Accuracy, Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value,
Negative predictive value, Epidemic, Endemic, incubation period, primary prevention, secondary prevention, Tertiary
prevention, Attack rate, secondary attack rate, Case fatality rate.

2- Third year students in 2013-2014 were 1200 students, 300 of them were wearing glasses in Jan 2013. The
number of students wearing glasses increased to 363 in Jan 2014.
Calculate : The point prevalence , period prevalence & incidence of vision error among student.

3-A case control study was done to investigate the relationship between phenylbutazone and the subsequent
risk of neutropenia, medical records of 300children were investigated. The results were as follows:
PB treatment Neutropenia Total
Present Absent
Yes 100 50 150
NO 70 80 150
Total 170 130 300
-Calculate exposure rate, OR &interpret the results

4- In cohort study concerning the relationship between the use of exogenous estrogen and subsequent risk of
breast cancer, a sample of 1000 premenopausal women were followed for 8 years. The results are presented in
the following table :
Estrogen therapy Breast cancer Total
Present Absent
Yes 300 200 500
No 100 400 500
Total 400 600 1000
Calculate:
-Incidence rate (absolute risk) of breast cancer among women receiving estrogen therapy
-IR (absolute risk) of breast cancer among women who did not receive estrogen therapy
-RR, AR, AR%

5- A new radiological scanning test for the early detection of osteogenic sarcoma was used to evaluate of 500
patients. The results were as follow:

Test Osteogenic sarcoma Total

Present Absent
Positive 100 (….) 150 (……) ……..
Negative 75 (…..) 175 (……) ………
Total …….. ……. ………
Complete the table & Calculate :
Sensitivity , specificity, false negative , false positive, diagnostic power of test, predictive value of negative test,
prevalence .

6- In a population of 1000, measles vaccine coverage was 60%, one child goes out of city and comes back with
measles from whom 20 more children get measles and one child was died.

Calculate attack rate, secondary attack rate , case fatality rate.

Good luck
Meluda 2015