Deck 15: The Epidemiologic Approach to Causation

Question 1

How epidemiologists determine causative and preventive factors involve a process known as which of the following?

A) Statistical interaction
B) Homogeneity of effect
C) Causal inference
D) Departure from multiplicity

Answer 1

Causal inference

Question 2

Which philosophy, which has prevailed since the Scientific Revolution of the 1700s, emphasizes inductive inference-the formulation of explanatory hypotheses from making observations?

A) Rationalism
B) Empiricism
C) Utilitarianism
D) Industrialism

Answer 2

Empiricism

Question 3

Which doctrine states that knowledge accumulates through reason rather than observation?

A) Rationalism
B) Empiricism
C) Utilitarianism
D) Industrialism

Answer 3

Rationalism

Question 4

Which concept, which was first developed for infectious diseases, means that a cause should lead to a single effect and vice versa?

A) Consistency
B) Specificity
C) Temporality
D) Plausibility

Question 5

Which of the following is the only one of Hill's guidelines about which there is complete agreement among epidemiologists?

A) Consistency
B) Specificity
C) Temporality
D) Plausibility

Question 6

Rothman defined which of the following as a "complete causal mechanism" that inevitably produces disease?

A) Direct cause
B) Necessary cause
C) Sufficient cause
D) Component cause

Question 7

Critics of which guideline state that its absence implies only that the investigator is unimaginative, not that the association is noncausal?

A) Analogy
B) Specificity
C) Temporality
D) Plausibility

Question 8

Causal inference is a simple process with no hard and fast rules.

Question 9

Falsifiability increases with the empirical content of the hypothesis.

Question 10

Most "causes" of interest to epidemiologists are actually components of sufficient causes.

Question 11

Which of the following, the third essential attribute of a cause, means that there is an asymmetrical relationship between cause and effect?

A) Association
B) Time order
C) Direction
D) Regression

Question 12

Which man introduced the idea that people became ill because of an imbalance in the four body humors: phlegm, yellow bile, blood, and black bile?

A) Hippocrates
B) Jakob Henle
C) Louis Pasteur
D) Miles Berkeley

Question 13

In the 1970s, Rothman presented a view of causation that has come to be known as which of the following?

A) Germ theory
B) Causal criteria
C) Web of Causation
D) Sufficient-Component Theory of Causation

Question 14

Prospective studies designs are best for providing evidence of which of the following because epidemiologists are usually sure that the cause preceded the occurrence of the disease in this type of study?

A) Consistency
B) Specificity
C) Temporality
D) Plausibility

Question 15

Which of Hill's guidelines is a reprise of John Stuart Mill's "method of difference" canon, which states that A causes B if, all else being held uniform, a change in A leads to a subsequent change in B?

A) Consistency
B) Experiment
C) Temporality
D) Plausibility

Question 16

Rothman defined which of the following as a "complete causal mechanism" that inevitably causes disease?

A) Distant cause
B) Proximate cause
C) Sufficient cause
D) Component cause

Question 17

True causes must exhibit which attribute?

A) Association
B) Plausibility
C) Consistency
D) Specificity

Question 18

During ancient times, concepts of causation were influenced mainly by people's religious beliefs.

Question 19

Although the presence of consistency may provide evidence of causality, its absence does not preclude causation.

Question 20

Experimental studies provide most of the epidemiological data for judging whether an association is causal.