Epi Terms

Question 0

Efficacy

Answer 0

Refers to the potential or maximal benefit derived from applying a test or procedure under ideal circumstances.

Question 1

Disease prevention

Answer 1

Primary prevention
Secondary prevention
Tertiary prevention

Question 2

Effectiveness

Answer 2

Refers to the actual benefit derived from a test or procedure that is applied under usual- less than ideal - circumstances.

Question 3

Cost-effectiveness

Answer 3

1. Refers to the cost incurred to achieve a given level of effectiveness.
2. It is often expressed as the dollars spend per year of life saved.
3. The most cost-effective test may not be the most effective test.

Question 4

Years of potential life lost

Answer 4

1. The number of year lost because of death from a disease before age 65 (or sometimes 70).
2. A measure of relative effect of a disease on society

Question 5

QALYs

Quality-adjusted life-years

Answer 5

1. A measure of the quality of life after a health care intervention.
2. It is the product of life expectancy and quality of the remaining life-years.
3. After the intervention, each year in perfect health is assigned the value of 1.0 and death is assigned a value of 0. If the year after the intervention are not lived in perfect health, the life-year are given a value between 0 and 1.
4. Eg. If after an intervention, 5 additional years of life are gained, during which the quality of life was 0.60, the intervention generated 3 QALYs.