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As an Epidemiologist, You Are Going to Investigate the Effect

question 19

Multiple Choice

As an epidemiologist, you are going to investigate the effect of a drug suspected of causing malformations in newborn infants when the drug in question is taken by pregnant women during the course of their pregnancies. As your sample you will use the next 200 single births occurring in a given hospital. For each birth, a medication history will be taken from the new mother and from her doctor; in addition, you will review medical records to verify use of the drug. (Note: These mothers are considered to have been followed prospectively during the entire course of their pregnancies, because a complete and accurate record of drug use was maintained during pregnancy.) The resultant data are: Forty mothers took the suspected drug during their pregnancies. Of these mothers, 35 delivered malformed infants. In addition, 10 other infants were born with malfunctions.
The relative risk between exposure to the drug and malformations is:

Definitions:

Negative Correlation

A relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other decreases.

Hair Length

A physical measurement referring to the length of hair strands from their roots to their ends.

Automobile

A wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure that calculates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables, ranging from -1 to 1.