Epidemiology Homework: Exploring Research on Health Outcomes and Risks

This assignment analyzes three epidemiology-related questions. Question 1 examines a cross-sectional study in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, investigating the link between domestic violence and preterm births, analyzing data on 1,099 women and assessing potential biases and measurement errors. Question 2 focuses on the impact of folic acid supplementation on birth defects, calculating the percentage of birth problems that could be prevented. Question 3 discusses the potential for misclassification errors in smoking data and their impact on the odds ratio. Question 4 touches upon the 'role of chance' in unexpected discoveries related to maternal hormone use and childhood cancer. The assignment incorporates concepts of study design, statistical analysis, and potential sources of error in epidemiological research, providing an overview of public health research methodologies and their application in real-world scenarios, supported by cited references.

Introduction to
Epidemiology

Question 1
a.
The provided research employs a cross-sectional study design. The characteristics that
support the design are;
 The research was carried out in 10 areas in Ho Chi Minh City.
 The study included 1,099 women between the ages of 18 and 49 who had given birth to at
least one member in the previous two years.
b.
 Insights regarding the frequency of domestic violence against women in HCMC, as well
as its link to preterm or low birth weight births.
 To assess DV-related concerns using relevant statistics from diverse demographic groups
and localities throughout the world.
 The goal of this study was to see if there was a link between DV and preterm birth in
women in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
c.
 The study concluded on there is a huge impact of DV on pre-term birth weight delivery in
Vietnamese women.
 DV screening is required throughout prenatal treatment.
d.
Domestic violence Low birthweight
No 106 (66.3%)
Yes 54 (33.7%)
It can be said that there is an inverse relationship between domestic violence and low
birthweight. If domestic violence increases ratio of low birthweight will decrease.
e.
The OR found above is different from POR as, there exists a inverse relationship between
the two variables.
f.
Physical violence was recorded at 80 which was 7.3% out of total of 1,099 candidates.
The POR between physical violence and pre-birth weight is 0.69.
g.

The potential source of measurement errors could be due to the respondents, the
interviewer, the instrument, and the mode of data. For the stated research proper procedures of
the study were developed which included;
 Pilot interview
 Recruitment of participants
 Data collection and questionnaire
h.
In my opinion risk of selection, and biases is low as reflects the nature of the research
being performed on suitable problems or challenges in an economy. The respective research for
which random sample of women was selected at reproductive age in Vietnam.
i.
The author of the research took considerations of alcohol consumption for the provided
research on domestic violence on women during pregnancy. This could be due to relevancy of
the social factors of individual as after consumption of alcohol it is deemed that violence or
related abuses might increase as an assumption.
Question 2
a.
Exposure Outcome
Mother without folic supplements 70
Abnormal birth/ birth defect 72
3 women who gave birth to healthy babies 3
b.
70 percent of the estimate comes from the strength of the link between birth defect and
folic acid supplementation during pregnancy.
c.
Folic acid reduces the risk of certain brain and spinal cord birth defects by more than
70%. NTDs are a type of birth defect.
d.

The proportion of birth problems that can be prevented in the population, assuming a
coincidental relationship between folic acid supplementation and birth malformations, is high, at
97.22 percent.
Question 3
It is to be identified that published OR of 1.9 will tend to increase as smoking
information from participants is likely to be hampered by errors resulting in misclassifications.
This could be due to fewer considerations participants taken into consideration for performing
the study, thus fluctuations can be observed.
Question 4
The shows an example of “The role of chance” that covers all the unexpected discoveries.
As in the stated study there is a probability of high risk of childhood cancer in the process of
maternal use of hormones during pregnancy.

References
Crichton, N. and Mulhall, A., 2022. Epidemiology and health. In Health Studies (pp. 49-83).
Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Kaplan, R.M., 2020. Biology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and management of anthelmintic
resistance in gastrointestinal nematodes of livestock. Veterinary Clinics: Food Animal
Practice, 36(1), pp.17-30.
Roth, J.A., Battegay, M., Juchler, F., Vogt, J.E. and Widmer, A.F., 2018. Introduction to machine
learning in digital healthcare epidemiology. Infection Control & Hospital
Epidemiology, 39(12), pp.1457-1462.
Watts, R.A. and Robson, J., 2018. Introduction, epidemiology and classification of vasculitis. Best
Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology, 32(1), pp.3-20.