Health Risk Data Analysis And Risk Perception
Define the term “mortality rate” as used in epidemiological studies.
A study finds that people with high blood cholesterol show higher rates of coronary heart disease (CHD). Which conclusion is scientifically valid from this finding alone?
A researcher studies the effect of saturated fat intake on CHD using only 25 male factory workers aged 45–50 from one town. Which is the most significant weakness of this study?
Which feature most improves the reliability (rather than validity) of a study into dietary risk and CHD?
Two large studies on moderate alcohol consumption and CHD reach opposite conclusions. Which explanation best accounts for this conflicting evidence?
After a widely reported plane crash, surveys show people rate air travel as more dangerous than driving, although statistics show driving causes far more deaths per kilometre. Which combination of factors best explains this misperception?
A public health team wants to investigate whether dietary salt intake is causally linked to CHD. Which study design would provide the strongest evidence of causation?
A smoker insists that smoking will not harm her because her grandfather smoked daily and lived to age 92. Which psychological factor best explains her reasoning?
Which statement best describes why people commonly underestimate the CHD risk from a high-saturated-fat diet?
In a risk-factor study, researchers divide the population into age and sex subgroups before randomly selecting participants from each. Which sampling method is being used, and what is its main advantage?
A new food additive is introduced and receives heavy media attention. Despite very low statistical risk, many consumers refuse all products containing it, while continuing high-salt, high-fat diets. Which combination of biases best explains this behavioural inconsistency?
A study reports a strong correlation between hours of television watched per week and CHD incidence. Before claiming causation, which is the most important confounding variable to investigate?