NLE Community Medicine MCQs: Practice Questions With Explanations

Sample NLE MCQs from Community Medicine — a 111-question subject in HighYield's NLE bank without a dedicated practice post yet — covering epidemiology, screening and prevention.

Community Medicine is a 111-question subject in HighYield's NLE (National Licensing Examination) question bank that doesn't yet have a dedicated practice post. Below is a sample set of Community Medicine MCQs covering the epidemiology and public health concepts tested on the exam.

Epidemiology Basics

1. The proportion of a test's true positives correctly identified as positive is called its:

A) Specificity
B) Sensitivity ✅
C) Positive predictive value
D) Negative predictive value

2. The proportion of people truly free of a disease who are correctly identified as negative by a test is its:

A) Sensitivity
B) Specificity ✅
C) Positive predictive value
D) Prevalence

3. The number of new cases of a disease occurring in a population over a defined period is its:

A) Prevalence
B) Incidence ✅
C) Case fatality rate
D) Attack rate

4. The total number of existing cases (old and new) of a disease in a population at a given point in time is its:

A) Incidence
B) Prevalence ✅
C) Mortality rate
D) Case fatality rate

Study Design

5. A study that starts with diseased and non-diseased groups and looks backward for exposure, calculating an odds ratio, is a:

A) Cohort study
B) Case-control study ✅
C) Randomised controlled trial
D) Cross-sectional study

6. A study that follows exposed and unexposed groups forward in time to compare disease incidence, calculating a relative risk, is a:

A) Case-control study
B) Cohort study ✅
C) Case series
D) Cross-sectional study

7. Systematic error introduced when study participants inaccurately recall past exposures is called:

A) Selection bias
B) Recall bias ✅
C) Confounding
D) Lead-time bias

Prevention & Public Health

8. Health promotion and specific protection (e.g. immunisation) belong to which level of prevention?

A) Primary prevention ✅
B) Secondary prevention
C) Tertiary prevention
D) Primordial prevention

9. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment through screening belong to which level of prevention?

A) Primary prevention
B) Secondary prevention ✅
C) Tertiary prevention
D) Health promotion

10. Rehabilitation aimed at limiting disability after disease has occurred is an example of:

A) Primary prevention
B) Secondary prevention
C) Tertiary prevention ✅
D) Primordial prevention

11. The indirect protection of unvaccinated individuals when a sufficiently high proportion of a population is immune is known as:

A) Passive immunity
B) Herd immunity ✅
C) Active immunity
D) Cross-immunity

12. The epidemiological triad used to describe disease causation consists of agent, host and:

A) Vector
B) Environment ✅
C) Reservoir
D) Portal of entry

Prepare with HighYield

HighYield's NLE question bank covers Community Medicine alongside Surgery, General Medicine, Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and every other subject tested in the National Licensing Examination, with every question explained. New to the exam structure? Start with our NLE Syllabus breakdown.