SOCI 172 Exam1, 2, 3

Among the key “supply side” reasons for the increasing mortality rate among White Americans aged 45-54 between 1999-2013 was which of the following:
A) The U.S. government did not supply White Americans with health insurance in the same way that it did for non-White Americans.
B) The genetics of White Americans put them at higher risk for dying of causes such as cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases compared to other groups.
C) State and local governments did not supply White Americans with sufficient information to understand that they shouldn’t overuse prescription drugs and drink too much alcohol
D) White Americans largely stopped attending church services in the early 21st century; thus, the “supply” of healthy messaging was drastically reduced
E) There were rapid increases in the availability and supply of prescription opioids beginning in the 1990s, due to FDA Approval of oxycontin and similar drugs produced and heavily marketed by Purdue Pharma and other pharmaceutical companies

E) There were rapid increases in the availability and supply of prescription opioids beginning in the 1990s, due to FDA Approval of oxycontin and similar drugs produced and heavily marketed by Purdue Pharma and other pharmaceutical companies

The 2018 National Strategy to Increase Life Expectancy Act:
A) was signed into law by Trump in 2018 and has been incredibly effective
B) was eventually passed by the Biden Administration in 2023 and has cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $2 Trillion to date, without good results
C) was not signed into law at the national level, but was passed by the State of North Carolina in 2019 because our state has been at the forefront of legislation to improve population health
D) never came close to becoming law

D) never came close to becoming law

Estimated life expectancy at birth (e 0 ) in the U.S. in 1900 was:
A) Actually higher than it is now because rural life at the time was so healthy and pure
B) Uncertain, but probably close to 70 years because there were no food additives to worry about
C) Around 48 years for Black Americans and 47 years for White Americans, illustrating that racial equity that was such an important part of American life in 1900
D) Approximately 75 years, because cancer and heart disease really hadn’t emerged as causes of death at that point in American history
E) None of the above

E) None of the above

W.E.B. DuBois was:
A) An important artist in early America, especially noted for painting murals in New York City
B) The founding father of American sociology, who focused an important portion of his work on racial disparities in population health
C) The scientist who developed the concept of the epidemiologic transition
D) An important public health figure in colonial America, who is credited with developing the first water sanitation systems that helped increase life expectancy between 1760 and 1840.

B) The founding father of American sociology, who focused an important portion of his work on racial disparities in population health

Which of the following was partially responsible for the slow development of our understanding of, and potential treatments for, HIV/AIDS during the 1980s?

A) The US Congress devoted lots of money to fight it, but researchers refused to study it.
B) The first vaccines used to prevent it made many people sick.
C) A lack of political will by US governmental leaders to discuss or even acknowledge the HIV epidemic, which influenced the lack of federal funding for scientific studies.
D) Nearly all of the country's research money was being devoted to the social determinants of health, so there was no more money to devote to a new disease.

C) A lack of political will by US governmental leaders to discuss or even acknowledge the HIV epidemic, which influenced the lack of federal funding for scientific studies.

Population-based biomarker data _______
A) typically come from medical records of patients.
B) typically come from cadavers and are therefore very useful for the study of mortality.
C) typically come from surveys of individuals conducted in parking lots and street corners.
D) typically come from blood samples or other biological samples.
E) are samples used in studies of animals but not in studies of humans.

D) typically come from blood samples or other biological samples.

Most often, life expectancy at birth is calculated using ____.
A) cohort-based data

B) biased data

C) period-based data
D) future projection-based data

E) data provided by the Douglas Warnken Foundation

C) period-based data

This RJ Reynolds character was so popular that consumption of their company’s cigarettes skyrocketed among youth during the 1990s.
A) Mike Fisherman

B) John Scotsman

C) Brian Eat Crow

D) Joe Camel

E) Chef Kevin

D) Joe Camel

In the study of population health, “population reprepresentativeness” refers to:
A) making sure that new drug treatments work equally well for everyone in the population.
B) the idea that what studies find in the U.S. population apply equally well to other countries.
C) the idea that scientific findings that are important to population health should be publicized just as much on Fox News as on CNN.
D) the idea that descriptions and relationships from research studies are true in the overall U.S. population and among its subgroups.
E) the idea that voluntary research samples, if large enough and composed of people who are recruited from random places like Walmart parking lots, clearly represent the U.S. population.

D) the idea that descriptions and relationships from research studies are true in the overall U.S. population and among its subgroups.

Population health researchers use which types of data to conduct their studies?
A) Survey data
B) Census data
C) Vital Statistics data
D) All of these types of data
E) None of these types of data

D) All of these types of data

U.S. cigarette advertisements during the mid-20th century (i.e., 1950s):
A) Were outlawed by the federal government.
B) Were eliminated by the tobacco companies like RJ Reynolds once they realized their products were resulting in millions of deaths
C) Probably were not very influential because the American public is not influenced by
advertisements
D) Included prominent people like actors, doctors, and star athletes to demonstrate that cigarette smoking was a high status and popular behavior among elite Americans

D) Included prominent people like actors, doctors, and star athletes to demonstrate that cigarette smoking was a high status and popular behavior among elite Americans

Add Health researchers take medical equipment (e.g., blood pressure monitors, needles and blood
collection tubes) into the homes of Add Health participants because the:
A) Add Health study treats their participants for illnesses.

B) Add Health study intends to create cures for chronic diseases like diabetes.
C) Add Health study collects biomarker data in addition to its survey data.
D) Add Health study is testing whether or not individuals are willing to give blood

C) Add Health study collects biomarker data in addition to its survey data.

Many research studies show that the United States could clearly improve the population's health by simply doubling the amount of money we spend on health care.
A) True B) False

B) False

The term “population health” is sometimes used differently among medical and clinical researchers in comparison to the definition provided by Hummer and Hamilton.
A) True B) False

A) True

According to Hummer & Hamilton, which is not part of the study of population health?
A) Using a set of multi-level determinants to explain patterns and trends in health
B) Treating individuals at pop-up clinics (e.g., at churches and schools)
C) Documenting patterns and trends in health in a specific geographic location
D) Translating research findings into actions that can improve population health

B) Treating individuals at pop-up clinics (e.g., at churches and schools)

Demography is the scientific study of:
A) evolution and the afterlife
B) religious practices, including past, present, and future
C) human populations, including their fertility, migration, & mortality patterns
D) the relationships between biology and chemistry
E) diseases and their causes and consequences

C) human populations, including their fertility, migration, & mortality patterns

Between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy at birth in the United States:
A) declined by about 2.5 years.
B) increased by about 3.6 years.
C) increased for White Americans, but declined for all other ethnoracial groups.
D) decreased from 78.8 years to just 53.4 years due to Covid-19.
E) was impossible to determine, because our mortality data throughout the United States was of such poor quality across this time period.

A) declined by about 2.5 years.

All but one of the following best characterizes the study of population health in comparison to the
discipline of public health?
A) a generally stronger scientific focus
B) a focus on defined geographic areas
C) a generally stronger applied focus on implementation and service delivery
D) a focus on using research to influence policy
E) it grew up out of the social sciences, including demography

C) a generally stronger applied focus on implementation and service delivery

A pandemic is defined as:
A) an epidemic that's spread over multiple countries or continents.
B) a chronic disease that needs expensive drugs to treat.
C) a new disease that will appear and disappear in less than five years of duration
D) a disease that, at first, only babies are exposed to but that eventually spreads through the entire population
E) whatever Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says it is

A) an epidemic that's spread over multiple countries or continents.

Which group is not supposed to be counted by the US Census?
A) Elderly persons living in nursing homes

B) Undocumented immigrants
C) The homeless

D) Foreign tourists visiting the Disney World area for a month
E) College students living in dorms

D) Foreign tourists visiting the Disney World area for a month

Which of the following is an example of a cohort-based population health study?
A) The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
B) The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
C) The National Health Interview Survey
D) Laura Ingraham asking her fans what they think about mask mandates
E) All of the above

A) The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)

The US has ______ population health in ______ domains and ________ health disparities.
A) relatively poor, multiple, large

B) excellent, most, large
C) relatively poor, just a few, small

D) excellent, multiple, small

A) relatively poor, multiple, large

Social stratification is a system of inequality that helps us understand "who gets ____ and ____"
A) sick, when

B) what, why

C) tired, thirsty
D) old, worn out

E) dementia, Alzheimers disease

B) what, why

Which of the following is a key measure of population health?
A) life expectancy

B) infant mortality rate

C) neither

D) both

D) both

In what 3 dimensions do demographers think about time?
A) year, age, decade

B) Apple watches, cell phones, and wall clocks
C) year, decade, century

D) age, period, cohort

E) years, decades, centuries

D) age, period, cohort

Fortunately, the rate of U.S. cigarette smoking has declined in recent decades. As a result:
A) recent studies show that fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults each year are dying due to smoking.
B) deaths due to cigarette smoking are no longer a public health concern.
C) U.S. tobacco companies have, for the most part, gone out of business or switched to producing healthy products like kale and beets
D) it is still the case that over 400,000 Americans are dying each year due to cigarette smoking
E) none of the above are true

D) it is still the case that over 400,000 Americans are dying each year due to cigarette smoking

Which of the following is a key difference between period-based surveys and cohort-based surveys?
A) Period-based surveys are about health topics; cohort-based surveys are not
B) Period-based surveys have large samples; cohort-based surveys have small samples
C) Period-based surveys provide a snapshot of population health at one point in time; cohort-based surveys follow individuals as they age across time
D) Period-based surveys are nationally representative; cohort-based surveys are not

C) Period-based surveys provide a snapshot of population health at one point in time; cohort-based surveys follow individuals as they age across time

How can population health researchers take advantage of death certificate data?
A) Track mortality trends by cause, race, age, sex, and educational attainment
B) Track mortality trends across geographic areas such as states
C) Calculate death rates for different groups in U.S. society
D) All of the Above

E) None of the Above

D) All of the Above

Which of the following is true about US Census data?
A) It allows us to calculate birth rates by providing us with the annual count of births
B) It is voluntary, but participation is highly encouraged
C) Only people who are citizens are included in the count
D) It provides us with the denominator for calculating death rates

D) It provides us with the denominator for calculating death rates

Which of the following is not nationally representative data in the United States?
A) National Survey of Family Growth

B) Add Health
C) the largest health survey (close to 1 million) of volunteers in our country, called All of Us
D) National Health Interview Survey

C) the largest health survey (close to 1 million) of volunteers in our country, called All of Us

The “Master Settlement Agreement” of 1998 resulted in all but which of the following:
A) The permanent commitment of U.S. tobacco companies to develop and market healthy products rather than their previous focus on deadly products
B) Tobacco companies paying billions to states
C) The regulation of tobacco company ads, marketing, cartoons, etc.
D) Public accessibility to tobacco company documents
E) Funding of the “Truth Initiative”

A) The permanent commitment of U.S. tobacco companies to develop and market healthy products rather than their previous focus on deadly products

The infant mortality rate in the United States is currently closest to which of the following?
A) 3.2 per 1,000,000

B) 5.6 per 1,000

C) 0.009
D) 167 per 100,000

E) The U.S. does not have sufficient data for this calculation

B) 5.6 per 1,000

According to Case and Deaton, which group of Americans has been especially vulnerable to dying from “deaths of despair” (i.e., drug poisonings, alcohol-related deaths, suicide) over the last 25 years?
A) those with a family history of diabetes

B) those who are cigarette smokers
C) those who tend to go to church every Sunday

D) those who live in urban communities
E) those with a high school degree or less

E) those with a high school degree or less

Which age group is the least vulnerable to the risk of death?
A) ages 15-19

B) ages 5-9

C) ages 10-14

D) ages 30-34

E) ages 50-54

B) ages 5-9

The table most likely shows age-specific mortality rates per ____ population in each age group:
A) 1,000

B) the undocumented immigrant

C) 100,000
D) the world’s complete

E) the highly educated

C) 100,000

Carlyn Graham and colleagues recently used data from Add Health to show that:
A) U.S. adolescents who gaze into crystal balls are more likely to have poor vision in adulthood compared to adolescents who do not gaze into crystal balls.
B) U.S. adolescents have no sense of their future health and mortality patterns; if you are a clinician, you should dismiss what they say because it’s really random and mostly nonsense.
C) U.S. male adolescents have a great sense of whether or not they will live to age 35.
D) U.S. female adolescents have insights into their future survival patterns; clinicians should pay particular attention if they report that they do not think they will live to age 35

D) U.S. female adolescents have insights into their future survival patterns; clinicians should pay particular attention if they report that they do not think they will live to age 35

Let’s pretend that only 5 people were born in the United States in 1900. They died at ages 10, 30, 50, 70, and 90, respectively. What was life expectancy for the U.S. birth cohort of 1900?
A) 27.8

B) 90.0

C) 72.0

D) 50.0

D) 50.0

The US government agency primarily responsible for collecting data about the health of the US population is the:
A) Food & Drug Administration

B) Social Security Administration
C) Department of Homeland Security

D) Department of State
E) National Center for Health Statistics

E) National Center for Health Statistics

Why are data sets such as the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Health and Retirement Study so important?
A) They accurately determine the health of individuals at one point in time, then never again
B) These studies track how having a hobby in elementary school, such as playing basketball or painting pictures, influence survey participation 10 years later
C) These studies were the first to compare mortality rates in the United States with that of other high-income countries, such as Sweden and Australia
D) These studies follow individuals across the life course, rather than just at one point in time
E) These studies provide interventions to one-half of the sample and not the other to best determine what happens when population health experiments are conducted.

D) These studies follow individuals across the life course, rather than just at one point in time

High-quality population health studies have determined that the most important reason why the United States experienced major declines in infant and child mortality between 1900 and 1940 was:
A) the population stopped drinking so much cow’s milk and started drinking oat milk
B) all infants and children began to get vaccinated from polio in 1900
C) the invention of US medical schools, which immediately improved the training of doctors and resulted in tremendous decreases in infant and child mortality
D) major areas of the country developed piped water and sewage systems

D) major areas of the country developed piped water and sewage systems

One of the key major findings from the Add Health study highlighted in class showed that:
A) U.S. adolescents who regularly drink soy milk will actually have healthier bones in adulthood compared to adolescents who regularly drink cow’s milk.
B) U.S. young adults have lower life expectancy, but better cardiovascular health, than either Canadian or Mexican young adults.
C) Cancer death rates among U.S. adolescents and young adults are substantially decreased in recent years due to the new therapies developed by Add Health researchers.
D) U.S. young adults have higher rates of hypertension, pre-diabetes, and diabetes than was previously known.
E) U.S. adolescents and young adults are more likely to exercise than their Canadian counterparts.

D) U.S. young adults have higher rates of hypertension, pre-diabetes, and diabetes than was previously known.g E) Covid-19

_______ has/have caused more deaths than any other pandemic/epidemic in American history.
A) Obesity

B) Car accidents

C) Opioids

D) Cigarette smoking

E) Covid-19

D) Cigarette smoking

Mortality rates in the United States fell most rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries than during any other period in the nation’s history. This reduction in mortality can largely be attributed to a reduction in deaths among infants and children.
A) True B) False

A) True

What do cardiovascular disease, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes have in common?
A) They are the four main types of noncommunicable (or chronic) diseases.
B) Their spread can be prevented through vaccination.
C) They are considered the primary types of infectious diseases.
D) They are all diseases that all have nothing to do with social factors and that are fully
dependent on genetic risk and medical technology.

A) They are the four main types of noncommunicable (or chronic) diseases.

According to Omran’s description of the epidemiologic transition, during which historical period was life expectancy at birth roughly 20 to 40 years and most deaths were caused by infectious diseases?
A) the Age of Chlorination

B) the Age of Pestilence and Famine
C) the Age of Degenerative and 'Man Made' Diseases
D) the Age of Receding Pandemics E) the Age of War

B) the Age of Pestilence and Famine

The historical period when spikes in infectious diseases become more predictable and less frequent and life expectancy increases to roughly 50 years is referred to as __________.
A) the Age of Receding Pandemics

B) the Age of Pestilence and Famine
C) the Age of Degenerative and "Man-Made" Diseases

D) the Age of McDonald’s

A) the Age of Receding Pandemics

Throughout the majority of human history, life expectancy at birth was probably around:
A) 20-25 years

B) 60 or so years

C) 65.3 years

D) 70.0 years

A) 20-25 years

Major declines in infectious diseases during the late half of the 19th century and early 20th century were almost fully due to improvements in modern medical practice.
A) True B) False

B) False

Over the past 50 years, Hummer & Hamilton identified all but which of the following as major trends in US population health:
A) Generally poor trends in women’s health
B) Especially poor health among wealthy Americans because of their poor diets and drug use
C) Increasing socioeconomic disparities in population health

D) The HIV/AIDS epidemic
E) Increasing activity limitations among the US middle-age and older populations

B) Especially poor health among wealthy Americans because of their poor diets and drug use

With which of the following statements would a population health scholar most likely agree?
A) Improvements in life expectancy from 1900-60 were due to biomedical technology.
B) The most important looming population health problem in the rest of the 21 st century United States will be teaching everyone that exercise is a good thing and eating fast food is a bad thing.
C) Health and longevity are equally distributed among sub-groups of the U.S. population.
D) Despite dramatic declines in mortality rates due to infectious diseases since 1900 or so, they still pose a major threat to population health.

D) Despite dramatic declines in mortality rates due to infectious diseases since 1900 or so, they still pose a major threat to population health.

The dramatic and sudden decrease in U.S. life expectancy in 1918 shown in the figure above was caused by __________.
A) a global influenza pandemic

B) the Great Depression

C) the HIV/AIDS epidemic
D) the Korean War

E) problems with data: 15 states did not collect death certificates that year

A) a global influenza pandemic

Which of the following phenomena does the figure above clearly demonstrate?
A) The latter part of the 20th Century saw several spikes in mortality caused by wars.
B) The U.S. lags behind other high-income nations on most population health measures.
C) Life expectancy at birth in the US increased by over 25 years between 1900 & 2014.
D) There are large racial disparities in life expectancy at birth.

C) Life expectancy at birth in the US increased by over 25 years between 1900 & 2014.

Evidence indicates that African Americans in the United States benefited from the epidemiologic transition at least as much, if not more than whites. This observation was in part attributable to:
A) the social, economic, and health conditions being so poor for the U.S. Black population at the start of the 20th century.
B) the socioeconomic status of the Whites population decreasing during the 20th century.
C) the Black population achieving socioeconomic equality with whites by 1975.
D) affirmative action policies that ended racial discrimination in the labor market by 2000.

A) the social, economic, and health conditions being so poor for the U.S. Black population at the start of the 20th century.

Add Health data showed that U.S. religious adolescents who took “virginity pledges” have far fewer teen pregnancies and fewer sexually transmitted infections than U.S. religious adolescents who did not take a virginity pledge.
A) True B) False C) Add Health were never used with regard to this topic

B) False

According to Hummer & Hamilton, what is one of the key reasons why mortality from
cardiovascular diseases is not likely to continue declining in the coming decades in the United States?
A) immigrant children in the U.S. are less healthy than their native-born counterparts
B) the increased popularity of bubblegum among children, adolescents, and young adults
C) increased prevalence of obesity among U.S. children, adolescents, and young adults
D) increasing rates of cigarette smoking among children, adolescents, and young adults

C) increased prevalence of obesity among U.S. children, adolescents, and young adults

n the early phase of the epidemic, doctors' prescribing patterns provided more opioid prescriptions to White Americans; that contributed to especially high opioid-related mortality for White Americans.
A) True B) False

A) True

Data from the National Health Interview Survey, as shown in class and in one of your readings, clearly demonstrates that:
A) the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) has actually resulted in more people being uninsured than before the law was implemented because it was written so poorly.
B) the United States now has a higher percentage of people uninsured than ever before in the nation’s history.
C) the United States has a significantly lower percentage of people that are uninsured in 2021-23 compared with 2000-2010
D) middle and upper income people in the United States are the least likely to have health insurance in the United States because the government provides insurance to all poor and low income people in the country.
E) health insurance coverage in the United States is the highest in the State of North Carolina given the generosity of our State Legislature and the lowest in the State of Nevada because the legislature there supports the gambling industry instead of healthcare.

C) the United States has a significantly lower percentage of people that are uninsured in 2021-23 compared with 2000-2010

Dr. Hummer used a picture of a guy playing “Whack-a-Mole” to illustrate which important point about U.S. population health:
A) U.S. children spend far too much time in arcades and not nearly enough time studying.
B) U.S. children and their parents eat way too much unhealthy food in places with arcade games like Dave & Busters; parents need to be more strict and teach their kids to eat green beans.
C) Our country far too often uses violence (e.g., hitting moles on the head) to solve its problems, thus resulting in our high rates of homicide.
D) Our country too often treats the symptoms of our population health problems rather than looking under the hood for systematic problems and potential structural solutions.
E) Dr. Hummer didn’t illustrate any key point with this picture; he simply wanted to relive his parenting days spending far too much money at arcades so that his kids took home stuffed animals and rubber snakes.

D) Our country too often treats the symptoms of our population health problems rather than looking under the hood for systematic problems and potential structural solutions.

The U.S. states with the highest percentages of uninsured people are:
A) all northeastern states with very expensive cost of living levels.
B) California, Oregon, and Washington -- because people on the west coast all eat sprouts and yogurt and don’t need insurance.
C) all southern states that have not passed Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
D) Kansas & Nebraska because the largest U.S. insurance companies refuse to cover people who live so long.

C) all southern states that have not passed Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

One of the key features of Add Health as a study to better understand US population health is its inclusion of data from multiple levels of context specific to each individual in the study. Which level of contextual data was not included in the initial Add Health design?
A) Peers

B) Pets

C) Families

D) Schools

E) Neighborhoods

B) Pets

U.S. cigarette advertisements from the mid-to-late 20 th century illustrate that:
A) Celebrities and sports stars are under-utilized “go to” people in terms of population health knowledge and advice; we simply need to listen to Aaron Rogers and Kim Kardashian!

B) Tobacco companies like Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds simply had no idea that their products were making people sick and killing them.
C) The opioid drug industry was not the first, and will not be the last, to use advertising that has the potential to harm and kill members of the American public in search of profits.
D) Our society used to really do some stupid things with regard to population health; it’s so great that we’re now the healthiest country in the world!

C) The opioid drug industry was not the first, and will not be the last, to use advertising that has the potential to harm and kill members of the American public in search of profits.

Which of the following is not a key definitional element of population health:
A) Scientific focus on understanding genetics and medical technology, since they are the two most important determinants of population health.
B) Documentation of health patterns (one point in time) and trends (across time)
C) Geographic-specific orientation.
D) Explanation of patterns and trends using multi-level set of factors.
E) Use of research findings to improve population health, especially through effective social and health policy.

A) Scientific focus on understanding genetics and medical technology, since they are the two most important determinants of population health.

Hummer & Hamilton’s textbook uses a “social demographic perspective” to understand population health. Such a perspective primarily draws upon which two scientific disciplines:
A) Biology and Geography

B) Epidemiology and Medicine

C) History and Culture
D.) Demography and Sociology

E.) Economics and Health Behavior

D.) Demography and Sociology

Case & Deaton’s important study on increasing midlife mortality among non-Hispanic Whites between 1999 and 2013 in the United States also showed that:
A) The US was not alone; every country they examined showed the exact same trend.
B) Covid-19 actually began as early as 2012, even though the government denied it.
C) The mortality rate increases among the middle-aged White population were especially true for causes of death that included drug poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver disease.
D) People in Michigan, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico were experiencing especially large increases in midlife mortality, while those in Kansas and Ohio were experiencing especially large decreases in midlife mortality.
E) People who had polio earlier in life were especially likely to die in the early 21st century.

C) The mortality rate increases among the middle-aged White population were especially true for causes of death that included drug poisonings, suicide, and chronic liver disease.

Based on their work, Case & Deaton developed possible explanations for increases in midlife mortality among non-Hispanic Whites in the United States that included both ____ and ____ factors.
A) water-based and soil-based

B) genetic-based and technological-based
C) demand-side and supply-side

D) sanitary-focused and filth-focused
E. religious-based and pagan-based

C) demand-side and supply-side

____________ famously claimed that health inequity “is the most shocking and the most inhumane” of all forms of inequality.
A) Dr. Daniel Cox

B) Dr. Charles King, Jr.

C) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
D. Dr. Robert Fuller

E) Dr. Steven Fuques

C) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) collects and makes data available from these three very well utilized population health surveys:
A) Add Health, the Health and Retirement Study, and the Survey on Old Age and Broken Bodies
B) National Hospital Survey, Blue Cross Blue Shield Web Survey, and Americans’ Medical Survey
C) National Unemployment Survey, Current Health Study, and the Survey on Wealth and Health
D) US Census, Survey on Attitudes & Fears about Disease, National Survey on Economics & Genes

E) National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey of Family Growth

E) National Health Interview Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey of Family Growth

Modern U.S. life expectancy figures are derived from _________.
A) data made available from churches

B) calculations made in life tables
C.) calculations based on bridging functions

D.) data from the Eric Christensen Foundation
E.) data from health fairs put on by universities

B) calculations made in life tables

An e20 value of 57.8 in the last column of a life table means that:
A) People in Eritrea live, on average, 57.8 years
B) Citizens of Egypt typically acquire their first chronic disease at age 57.8
C) 57.8% of Americans have ear-related health problems (e.g., hard of hearing)
D) People who are aged 20 and live in the eastern portion of the country have a 57.8% chance of living to age 100
E) Based on current age-specific death rates, people who are 20 years old can expect to live an additional 57.8 years

E) Based on current age-specific death rates, people who are 20 years old can expect to live an additional 57.8 years

Population health in the United States is best characterized by all but which of the following:
A) the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
B) the highest level of healthcare spending per capita than any other country in the world.
C) among the lowest level of life expectancy among all high-income countries in the world.
D) very large health disparities across subgroups of the population.
E) All of the above are true

A) the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.

The Add Health study here at UNC is an example of:
A) big-time government waste (please don’t choose this one!)
B) a highly successful period-based study of population health around the world
C) a study that has been mocked by the press as evidenced by it winning the Golden Goose Award
D) a study of old age health in the United States that led to the development of Medicare
E) a highly successful cohort-based study of population health in the United States

E) a highly successful cohort-based study of population health in the United States

The Add Health study is now primarily funded by:
A) UNC tuition funds paid by students and parents

B) The March of Dimes
C) The National Institute on Aging

D) The Eric Peterson Foundation

C) The National Institute on Aging

The overall goal of Add Health is to:
A) collect & disseminate high-quality data on life course determinants & trajectories of health, cognition, health behavior, & health disparities among a large, nationally representative cohort aging into midlife.
B) collect data to identify the genetic risks underlying several rare diseases in the United States and to use that information to develop cures for those diseases.
C) collect and disseminate high quality data on wealth and health in high-income countries.
D) use medical records and records from the Social Security Administration to inform the US government how the population health of the country will unfold for the rest of the 21 st century.
E) better understand infant and child health in the United States. The study is doing so by collecting medical records on up to 1 million infants and children.

A) collect & disseminate high-quality data on life course determinants & trajectories of health, cognition, health behavior, & health disparities among a large, nationally representative cohort aging into midlife.

The Add Health study collects and makes available which kinds of data:
A) surveys

B) biomarkers (e.g., blood-based assays)

C) cognitive data (e.g., memory)
D. contextual data (e.g., on schools, neighborhoods, states, etc.)

E. all of the above

E. all of the above

Age-adjusted mortality rates allow population health researchers to:
A) fairly compare the mortality rates of people who shop at Costco to people who shop online
B) fairly compare the mortality rates of people to the mortality rates of other species
C) fairly compare the mortality rates of a place with an older age structure (e.g., Silver City) to a place with a younger age structure (e.g., Kid Town)
D) fairly compare the mortality rates of people who attend great universities (e.g., UNC) to people who attend mediocre universities (e.g., Duke)
E) fairly compare the mortality rates of countries with good data to countries with bad data

C) fairly compare the mortality rates of a place with an older age structure (e.g., Silver City) to a place with a younger age structure (e.g., Kid Town)

Population health data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics are:
A) unavailable to the public

B) available to the public, including you and me
C.) sold to the public by subscription
D.) biased and useless; the private sector collects much better health data in our country
E.) no longer made available to the public because the US government does not want the public to understand the true extent of the country’s health problems

B) available to the public, including you and me

Cross-national data clearly shows that the US has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
A) true

B) false

C) no... but...we’re a close 2nd !

B) false

New cases of a disease or a health problem is called ______, while all cases of a disease or health
problem is called ________.
A) demography, sociology

B) a probability, odds

C) epidemiology, biostatistics
D) incidence, prevalence

E) a rate, a ratio

D) incidence, prevalence

Using the Murphy et al. (2024) article, we examined key findings with regard to U.S. mortality and life expectancy in 2023. Which of the following was a key finding from that report:
A) the age-adjusted mortality rate for Covid-19 decreased 73.3% in 2023 compared to 2022
B) the age-adjusted mortality rate for Cancer decreased by over 90% in 2023 compared to 2022, largely due to miraculous new treatments that people can buy online
C) U.S. life expectancy at birth decreased for the 10th straight year, signaling the complete failure of the U.S. public health system
D) the U.S. infant mortality rate declined by 40% when compared 2023 to 2022, largely because U.S. social policy finally was passed that provided parents with 26 weeks of paid leave time to take care of their babies

A) the age-adjusted mortality rate for Covid-19 decreased 73.3% in 2023 compared to 2022

The United States fares particularly well (e.g., diagnosis, treatment, low mortality) with regard to this disease when compared to other high-income countries:
A) Heart Disease B) HIV/AIDS C) Cancer D) Diabetes E) Covid-19

C) Cancer

Recent data shows that the United States has more guns than people in our country.
A) True B) False

A) True

All but which one of the following are likely key reasons why population health in many US counties is stagnating or even getting worse:
A) Weak policy investments (e.g., schools, economy, health care, built environment)
B) Economic struggle (typically in one key industry)
C) Corporate influences: e.g., cars, fast food, opioids, firearms
D) The US government clearly sends far too much money to foreign countries, thus leaving little in the way for health investment in many US counties

D) The US government clearly sends far too much money to foreign countries, thus leaving little in the way for health investment in many US counties

The grieving parents of the Sandy Hook school shooting recently settled with the Remington gun maker and its insurers for $73 million dollars in a case that was especially important for policy because:
A) those parents will never need to work again
B) it was the first time that a major settlement was reached in which a gun maker was held accountable for the weapons it produces, markets, and sells
C) it showed that Congress is clearly working on curbing gun violence in our country
D) it proved that U.S. individuals are not protected by the 2nd Amendment after all

B) it was the first time that a major settlement was reached in which a gun maker was held accountable for the weapons it produces, markets, and sells

Poll data show that a majority of U.S. adults are consistently in favor or stricter gun laws.
A) True B) False

A) True

A recent report from the NY Times shows that US mortality rates due to Covid-19:
A) are among the lowest in the world
B) were very high early on in the pandemic, but since vaccinations began, are now the lowest in the world
C) are unknown because data from the CDC are so unreliable
D) are the highest of any high-income country with good data

D) are the highest of any high-income country with good data

Data from Add Health showed that which of the following groups was most likely to bring a weapon to school in
grades 7-12:
A) Students who were members of one or more sports teams.
B) Students who did internships during the day and, thus, spent part of their day off-campus.
C) Students who were classified as not belonging to a group according to their position in the social network.
D) Students who were in a music-oriented group, including band or chorus.
E) 7th graders.

C) Students who were classified as not belonging to a group according to their position in the social network.

Which of the following factors helped cause US income and wealth inequality to grow so quickly since 1980?
A) Substantial decreases in taxes, especially among very high earners
B) Declining membership in labor unions
C) Increasing percentage of poor people who are unwilling or too lazy to work
D) A & B only
E) A, B, and C

D) A & B only

The US state and federal prison/jail population:
A) has held steady at roughly 200,000 people since the 1920s
B) increased rapidly in the early 20th century, but has been declining since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s
C) increased rapidly starting in the mid-1970s
D) decreased rapidly starting in 1993, largely due to President Clinton’s policies on decriminalization of marijuana

C) increased rapidly starting in the mid-1970s

All but which of the following were discussed in class as strategies for reducing income and wealth inequality
in the United States?
A) reduce taxes on corporations so that prices will be lower for individual consumers
B) increase the federal minimum wage
C) strengthen labor unions
D) offer more generous benefits for the bottom half of the income distribution
E) legislate a more progressive tax system

A) reduce taxes on corporations so that prices will be lower for individual consumers

In the US in 1980, the highest marginal tax rate was 70%. This means that...
A) The highest income earners paid 70% of their total income in taxes.
B) The highest income earners paid 70% of the highest part of their income in taxes.
C) Everyone paid 70% of their total income in taxes.
D) Everyone paid 70% of part of their income in taxes.
E) High income earners in the United States in 2019 pay 70% of their income in taxes because the tax rates
from 1960 have been unchanged for almost seven decades.

B) The highest income earners paid 70% of the highest part of their income in taxes.

President Reagan fired this large group of union workers who went on strike in 1981, thus illustrating that even unionized workers were at risk if they went on strike to bargain for higher wages and better benefits:
A) meat packers B) CEOs C) baseball players D) air traffic controllers E) coal miners

D) air traffic controllers

Based on the high-profile news coverage of scientific work focused on the relationship between religious attendance and mortality in the United States, it is clear that:
A) News coverage of scientific findings is usually biased because the news media are generally incompetent and give us fake news.
B) Students and the public should never believe what is reported to them by the news and should, instead, always read complete scientific papers.
C) Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine provided very thoughtful and unbiased coverage of the issue, while Fox News coverage was completely biased.
D) Consumers reading scientific findings that are reported in the media should read such reports with appropriate caution.
E) The media has no idea what they’re doing with regard to science.

D) Consumers reading scientific findings that are reported in the media should read such reports with appropriate caution.

Researchers in the 1970s and 1980s first began to identify mortality rate differences between religious denominational groups in the United States. Such findings demonstrated that:
A) Some groups are God's chosen people, while others are not.
B) Seventh Day Adventists and members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints exhibited substantially lower mortality rates than is generally found in the United States, strongly suggesting that people should join those groups if at all possible.
C) Social contexts exert social control and enhance social integration, thus influencing population health.
D) Groups whose members pray a lot live shorter lives than groups whose members don’t pray very much.
E) Atheists and Agnostics live much longer lives than Catholics, Jews, and Muslims in the United States

C) Social contexts exert social control and enhance social integration, thus influencing population health.

This group of African American adults exhibits especially high mortality rates in the United States:
A) Those who frequently attend religious services.

B) Those who frequently attend religious services but who report never praying.
C) Those who sometimes attend religious services.
D) Those who never attend religious services

D) Those who never attend religious services

Research findings on religious involvement and the health/mortality patterns of U.S. adults may be of particular interest to policymakers because:
A) Policymakers may be able to use such findings to teach people in poor countries that Christian beliefs and practices lead to long and healthy lives.
B) Policymakers may be able to better understand how social regulation and social integration influence health and apply such lessons to non-religious matters of public policy.
C) It clearly indicates that policymakers should create financial incentives for people to attend religious services and, thus, improve the health of the American public.
D) Faith-based medicine IS evidence-based medicine; therefore, policymakers should encourage medical practitioners to incorporate prayer into their treatment regimens.

B) Policymakers may be able to better understand how social regulation and social integration influence health and apply such lessons to non-religious matters of public policy.

The transfer or delegation of power to a lower level—especially by the federal government to local areas or
states—is called:
A) dereliction B) deregulation C) devolution D) pre-emption E) bifurcation

C) devolution

The process of removing or reducing regulations in the private transportation, food, or pharmaceutical industries is referred to as:
A) stratification B) capitalism C) socialism D) deregulation E) pre-emption

D) deregulation

The US health care system ___________.
A) does not explain why a US health disadvantage has emerged since the 1980s.
B) is disjointed, extremely expensive, and inefficient.
C) tends to be more focused on treatment and new technologies than prevention and primary care.
D) is all of the above

D) is all of the above

Which US age group tends to be as healthy or even healthier than their peers in other high-income countries?
A) 1-4 B) 20-24 C) 30-34 D) 60-64 E) 75+

E) 75+

The gap in life expectancy between New York State and Mississippi:
A) has been very wide in favor of New York State, by about 7.5 years, since 1980.
B) favored Mississippi in 1980 by 1.6 years and now favors New York State by 7.5 years.
C) favored New York State in 1980 by 12.2 years and still favors New York State now, but only by 1.6 years
D) favored New York State in 1980 by 1.6 years and now favors New York State by about 7 years.

D) favored New York State in 1980 by 1.6 years and now favors New York State by about 7 years.