Study guide for epidemiology final 2016

According to "Distracted Driving 2011" (NHTSA 2013), statistics pertaining to the number of people killed in distraction-affected crashes in 2011indicate that pedestrians accounted for ____% of these deaths.

12

According to "Distracted Driving 2011" (NHTSA 2013), statistics do indicate that, over the past five years, the estimated number of people injured in distraction-affected crashes has declined by:

14%

According to Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving: Sending e-mail or texting while driving was highest in which age group:

21-24 years of age

According to distraction.gov: ____ of teens respond to a text message once or more every time they drive.

25%

In the "Teen Driver Distraction Study" (UMTRI-Toyota, 2012): Teens read or send text messages once a trip ____ times more often than their parents think they do.

26

According to "Young Drivers Report the Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences" (NHTSA 2012), results of a 2011 phone survey indicated that ____% of drivers 21 to 34 thought sending text messages or e-mails made no difference on their driving,

27-29

According to the website distraction.gov: Drivers who use hand-held devices are ___ times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.

3

A CDC study analyzed 2011 data on distracted driving, including talking on a cell phone or reading or sending texts or emails behind the wheel. Data indicated that ___ of U.S. drivers ages 18-64 reported that they had read or sent text messages or email messages while driving at least once within the 30 days before they were surveyed.

31%

According to Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving: About ___ percent of all American teens say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put people in danger.

40

According to the information provided by distraction.gov: In 2012, an estimated ____ people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver, this was a nine percent increase from the estimated 387,000 people injured in 2011.

421,000

According to distraction.gov: The number of states that have joined the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in banning text messaging for all drivers is ____:

43

According to "Young Drivers Report the Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences" (NHTSA 2012), results of a 2011 phone survey indicated that ____% of drivers 21 to 34 thought sending text messages or e-mails made no difference on their driving,

48-51

According to "Distracted Driving 2011" (NHTSA 2013), distracted drivers were involved in the deaths of ____ nonoccupants during 2011.

495

According to distraction.gov: Sending or receiving a text takes a driver's eyes from the road for an average of ___ seconds. At 55 mph, this is equivalent to driving the length of an entire football field, blind.

5

According to the CDC: In June 2011, more than 196 billion text messages were sent or received in the US, up nearly ____from June 2009.

50%

A CDC study analyzed 2011 data on distracted driving, including talking on a cell phone or reading or sending texts or emails behind the wheel. Data indicated that ____ of drivers in the United States ages 18-64 reported that they had talked on their cell phone while driving within the 30 days before they were surveyed.

69%

According to "Young Drivers Report the Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences" (NHTSA 2012), younger drivers under 25 were less likely to report that they drift out of the lane or roadway when texting than older drivers.

False

According to the website distraction.gov: Those states with existing bans on cell-pone use or texting while driving apply the same definition of "novice driver".

False

According to the website distraction.gov: Talking to passengers is considered a type of "distracted driving".

True

In the study published by the New England Journal of Medicine involving distracted driving and risk of road crashes among novice and experienced drivers (2014), it was noted that graduated licensing has been adopted in all 50 states, but there is considerable variation in these state programs.

True

According to the website distraction.gov: A secondary law means an officer can only issue a ticket if:

a driver has been pulled over for another violation (like speeding).

According to distraction.gov: In Florida,

a secondary law bans texting among all drivers

According to "Young Drivers Report the Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences" (NHTSA 2012), _____ of young drivers 18 to 20 are willing to answer incoming phone calls on some, most, or all driving trips, and most continue to drive, at slightly higher rates than older drivers.

about two-thirds

In "Distracted Driving and Risk of Road Crashes among Novice and Experienced Drivers" (NEJM, 2014), the investigators used a ______ study design.

case-cohort

According to a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine (2014): Among experienced drivers, only ______ was associated with an increased risk of a crash or near-crash.

cell-phone dialing while driving

According to the CDC: Each day, ____ people are killed in crashes reported to involve a distracted driver.

cognitive

As reported on the CDC website: On October 27, 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration enacted a ban that prohibits _____from texting while driving.

commercial vehicle drivers

In a study designed to investigate the relationship between texting while driving and distraction-related car accidents, if an extrinsic factor was determined to be associated with the outcome, this would suggest the possibility of _____.

confounding bias

If you designed a statistical study that investigated the number of deaths that resulted from accidents involving distracted drivers, the ______ would measure the strength of the association between texting (or cell phone use) and vehicular deaths.

correlation coefficient

If you were designing an investigation of distracted driving and vehicular accidents and you utilized a study that was to be conducted over a short period of time (a few days or weeks), used the individual as the "unit of analysis", and involved no follow-up period, you would be using a _______ study design:

cross-sectional

According to the website distraction.gov: In order to improve the surveillance of incidents involving distracted drivers and separate distracted driving from other issues, on December 8, 2011, NHTSA released a new measure of fatalities related to distracted driving called _____:

distraction-affected crashes

In "Distracted Driving and Risk of Road Crashes among Novice and Experienced Drivers" (NEJM, 2014), among experienced drivers involved in a motor vehicle crash or near-crash associated with performance of a secondary task, the odds ratio (OR) was found to be lowest for:

drinking a non-alcoholic beverage

According to distraction.gov: The best way to end distracted driving is to:

educate all Americans about the danger it poses.

Although not considered an ethically acceptable means to conduct an investigation of accidents that occur as a result of distracted driving, the ________ study design is considered the "crown jewel" of study designs when the researcher wants to draw a cause-effect conclusion.

experimental

According to the information posted by the CDC: In response to the growing concern regarding texting and driving, on September 30, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order prohibiting this behavior among:

federal employees on government business or with government equipment

According to a CDC study that analyzed self-report data from the 2011 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, students who text while driving are nearly twice as likely to ride with a driver who has been drinking and _____ times as likely to drink and drive than students who don't text while driving.

five

In studies examining the association between distracted driving and vehicular crashes, if risk factors are common to a variety of different circumstances and the risk factors have been positively associated with an outcome, then the probability of that factor being the cause is extremely high. This concept is known as ________:

method of agreement

According to the CDC: Each day, ____ people are injured in crashes that were reported to involve a distracted driver.

more than 1,060

If an epidemiological study examined the proportion of deaths resulting from distracted driving related vehicular accidents during a given period of time in a population from which the deaths occurred, the calculation utilized would be:

mortality rate

For a health-related behavior to be considered an "epidemic", the occurrence of cases _______:

must clearly be in excess of normal expectancy in a community or region.

In a hypothetical case-control study analyzing the correlation between driving distractions and vehicular fatalities, the researcher has found that the odds ratio (OR) is equivalent to one. This indicates that:

no association exists between the exposure and the outcome

If you proposed a study that intended to examine the rate of automobile accidents among drivers who consumed food while driving compared to the rate of automobile accidents among drivers who did not eat while driving, the occurrence of a vehicular accident represents the ______ variable.

outcome

In evaluating the data obtained in the studies conducted on distracted driving, the ______ indicates the probability that the observed findings of the study could have occurred by chance alone.

p-value

According to distraction.gov: Recognizing the growing epidemic of vehicular fatalities involving distracted drivers, the U.S. Department of Transportation is still unable to make distracted driving illegal because:

passenger car driving behavior falls under the jurisdiction of the individual states, so the U.S. DOT cannot ban texting or cell phone use while driving.

In studies designed to examine distracted driving, factors found to be essential to the occurrence of injuries, disabilities, and death are known as ______.

precipitating factors

In analyzing a study that examines the association between distracted driving and vehicular crashes, the researcher notes factors or conditions already present that produce a susceptibility or disposition in an individual to the outcome being investigated. These factors are known as:

predisposing

If an epidemiological study wanted to examine the proportion of persons involved in distracted driving related vehicular accidents who actually died from the injuries sustained in these accidents, the calculation utilized would be:

the case-fatality rate

One of the limitations noted by the authors of the study published by the New England Journal of Medicine (2014) included:

the relatively small regional samples of study participants.

According to distraction.gov: In California, ________:

there is a primary law that bans all texting while driving

In studying vehicular fatalities among teens, researchers determine the burden of premature death from a specific cause on a population using a measure called ______:

years of potential life lost (YPLL)