11) Epidemiology

Question 1

2 leading causes of death?

Answer 1

CVS

Cancer

Question 2

What is the epidemiological transition and where does it happen first?

Answer 2

move from communicable (infectious) + trauma–> non-communicable disease

Happens in rich/western countries first

Question 3

2 things that cause incidence of cancer to vary dramatically?

Answer 3

Country
Age (50% over 65s)

Question 4

What do therapies vs prevention affect?

Answer 4

Therapies affects mortality

Prevention affects incidence

Question 5

How do you know if a cancer is caused by genes or environment?

Answer 5

Migrant studies

Question 6

What does a fast vs slow change in cancer risk in a migrant study suggest?

Answer 6

Fast=lifestyle/environmental factors act as carcinogens

Question 7

Why has stomach cancer incidence declined?

Answer 7

better food preservation-less H-pylori

Question 8

What is generally happening to cancer incidence?

Answer 8

increasing (but beginning to plateau/decrease) in both high + low income countries

Question 9

What is happening to cancer mortalities generally?

Answer 9

decreasing in high income countries but not low income countries

Question 10

What is happening to total burden of cancer?

Answer 10

increasing due to demographic changes

• ageing populations
• increasing size of populations

Question 11

What types of cancers are low income countries still experiencing alot?

Answer 11

infectious / lifestyle

Question 12

Causes of cancer:

Answer 12

Environment

Genetic

Question 13

What 2 things could genetic be referring to?

Answer 13

heriditary

mutations

Question 14

Examples of environmental risk factors for cancer:

Answer 14

smoking
diet
alcohol
exercise 
pollutants
infection
occupation

Question 15

Example of environmental factor that its hard to study the effects of?

Answer 15

pollutants

Question 16

Why is obesity linked to cancer?

Answer 16

inflammatory cytokines–>chronic inflammation which is hallmark of cancer

inflammation selects mutated cells