Generic H&S Outcomes

Question 1

how do you work out the risk difference?

Answer 1

risk among exposed - risk in unexposed

Question 2

what term describes what you would find if you worked out how much of the overall population risk of lung cancer is due to smoking?

Answer 2

population attributable risk

Question 3

how would you work out population attributable risk?

Answer 3

overall risk - risk among unexposed

Question 4

what is risk ratio also sometimes called?

Answer 4

relative risk

Question 5

what is the equation for risk ratio or relative risk?

Answer 5

risk in exposed individuals/risk in unexposed individuals
this is the same as saying:
(number with the disease who have been exposed/total exposed)/(number with disease who are unexposed/total unexposed)

Question 6

what type of studies are risk ratios used in?

Answer 6

cohort studies

Question 7

how do you work out the odds of disease?

Answer 7

number of individuals with disease/number of individuals without disease

Question 8

how do you work out odds ratio

Answer 8

odds of disease in exposed population/odds of disease in unexposed individuals

Question 9

what type of study would you use odds ratio?

Answer 9

case control studies

Question 10

what is meant by absolute risk? give an example

Answer 10

one population’s risk in its own right. e.g. women have an 11% risk of getting breast cancer

Question 11

what is meant by relative risk?

Answer 11

one population’s risk compared to another population

Question 12

what does it mean if a drug has a large NNT?

Answer 12

it means that more people have to be treated with the drug to prevent a bad outcome in one person

Question 13

how do you work out the NNT?

Answer 13

1/risk difference

Question 14

how can post mortems influence care of the living?

Answer 14

enable pathologists to understand more about illnesses and medical conditions and how diseases spread

Question 15

are coroners required to obtain relatives consent to do a post mortem?

Answer 15

no

Question 16

when are coroners, by law, required to carry out a post-mortem?

Answer 16

when a death is suspicious, sudden or unnatural

Question 17

list some of the ethical issues surrounding consent for post-mortem examinations

Answer 17

• in order for consent to be valid, the coroners are required to give detailed information to relatives about the process and options available to them afterwards but this might not be nice for relatives to hear
• difficult to gage how much information to give relatives about what a post-moretm examination entails
• who do you offer a post-mortem to? if you don’t offer it to everyone does it remove relatives choice? some relatives might like the opportunity to contribute to research or education