Deck 14: Critical Review of Epidemiologic Studies

Question 1

Which section of a journal article is the most important part of the article because it provides critical information about the study's validity?

A) Abstract
B) Introduction
C) Materials and Methods
D) Results

Answer 1

Materials and Methods

Question 2

Which type of bias can occur when individuals with particular adverse health events remember or report their previous exposure differently than do individuals who are affected?

A) Recall bias
B) Selection bias
C) Information bias
D) Interviewer bias

Answer 2

Recall bias

Question 3

The hallmark of which type of study is the investigator's assignment of participants to compared groups?

A) Cohort studies
B) Ecological studies
C) Experimental studies
D) Cross-sectional studies

Answer 3

Experimental studies

Question 4

The main limitation of ecological studies is an inability to apply the group-level relationship to the individual level which is referred to as which of the following?

A) Confounding
B) Information bias
C) Selection bias
D) Ecological fallacy

Question 5

Which of the following is "the process of or result of separating a sample into several subgroups according to specific criteria," which enables the investigator to evaluate an association within homogenous categories of a variable?

A) Randomization
B) Standardization
C) Stratification
D) Multivariate analysis

Question 6

The main advantage to which type of analysis is that they allow investigators to control for many confounders simultaneously?

A) Randomization
B) Standardization
C) Stratification
D) Multivariate analysis

Question 7

Which type of bias can occur in prospective cohort and experimental studies if there are differential losses to follow-up?

A) Recall bias
B) Selection bias
C) Information bias
D) Interviewer bias

Question 8

All well-written articles published in reputable journals should contain the information needed to answer the critique questions.

Question 9

Differential misclassification means that inaccuracies with respect to disease are dependent on exposure status and vice versa.

Question 10

The internal validity of a study must be established before the study results can be generalized to populations beyond the study subjects.

Question 11

Which of the following, adapted from an original developed by Richard Monson of Harvard School of Public Health, is believed to "disentangle the skeins of serendipity, bias, and intent that run throughout epidemiologic research"?

A) Meta-analysis
B) Journal article
C) Critique outline
D) Literature review

Question 12

Which section of a journal article describes the characteristics of the study population and study findings and typically includes text, several tables, and figures?

A) Abstract
B) Introduction
C) Materials and Methods
D) Results

Question 13

Which of the following, which is probably the most common form of bias in epidemiological research, biases the results toward the null if the misclassified exposure variable is dichotomous?

A) Selection bias
B) Information bias
C) Differential misclassification
D) Nondifferential misclassification

Question 14

A unique advantage of which of the following is that it will control for variables that the study investigator is unable to measure?

A) Randomization
B) Standardization
C) Stratification
D) Generalization

Question 15

Which of the following involves taking weighted averages of the relevant measures of disease frequency?

A) Randomization
B) Standardization
C) Stratification
D) Multivariable analysis

Question 16

Which of the following involves the construction of a mathematical model that describes the association between the exposure, disease, and confounders?

A) Randomization
B) Standardization
C) Matched analysis
D) Multivariable analysis

Question 17

Which measure of association is commonly used when the data are continuous?

A) Odds ratios
B) Rate differences
C) Risk differences
D) Mean differences

Question 18

Publishing in scientific journals is a major avenue for communicating the results of epidemiological studies.

Question 19

Recall bias can only occur in prospective studies that gather data from study subject?

Question 20

A statistically significant result has been arbitrarily defined as a P-value less than 0.05 or a 95% confidence interval that does not include the null.