AQA Biology 4.2.2.5–4.2.2.6
Health, disease and risk factors
Some diseases spread; some don’t; many are linked to how we live. Plot a scatter graph from a table, then decide what the link really shows.
Triple Science · Foundation tier
Start here
A cold and a sunburn.
One friend has a streaming cold. Another came back from the beach badly sunburnt. You spend the afternoon with both.
If you had to guess, are there illnesses you can catch and illnesses you can’t, or can almost any illness spread if you’re close enough?
Health and disease
Health is physical and mental well-being.
Diseases, both communicable and non-communicable, are major causes of ill health. Communicable diseases are caused by pathogens and can spread; non-communicable diseases can’t. Other factors, including diet, stress and life situations, can have a profound effect on both physical and mental health. Different types of disease may also interact. Tap each link.
Risk factors
Linked with a higher rate, not a certainty.
Risk factors are linked to an increased rate of a disease. They can be aspects of a person’s lifestyle, or substances in the person’s body or environment. Many diseases are caused by several factors interacting. Tap each one.
These diseases have a human cost (pain, illness, early death, families affected) and a financial cost (treatment, lost work), for a person, a local community, a nation and the world. Cancer has its own lesson: Cancer.
Reading the data
Plot it, then judge it.
Made-up data from five groups of people. Plot each row on the scatter graph, then decide what the pattern shows.
| Cigarettes a day | Lung cancer per 100 000 | |
|---|---|---|
Think again · a risk factor means you’ll get it?
“If you have a risk factor, you will get the disease.”
Your call
ChooseA person has never smoked. Could they still get lung cancer?
Sort
Communicable or non-communicable?
Place each disease.
Tap a card, then tap the box it belongs in. Tap a placed card to take it back.
Command words in this lesson
- Describe
- The pattern: as one goes up, the other…
- Evaluate
- Sample size, how it was chosen, link or cause.
- Discuss
- Human and financial costs, at each level.
Key fact
Health is the state of physical and mental well-being. A risk factor is linked to an increased rate of a disease; a correlation alone does not prove it causes the disease.
Key note · AQA 4.2.2.5–4.2.2.6
Health, disease and risk factors
- Health is the state of physical and mental well-being. Diet, stress and life situations affect both.
- Communicable diseases are caused by pathogens and can spread; non-communicable diseases can’t.
- Diseases interact: immune defects make infections more likely; viruses can trigger cancers; pathogens can trigger allergies; severe physical illness can lead to depression.
- Risk factors are linked to an increased rate of disease: lifestyle, or substances in the body or environment. Smoking and alcohol harm unborn babies; carcinogens, including ionising radiation, are risk factors for cancer.
- A correlation is a link. A cause is proven only when the mechanism is found. Large, random samples give more valid conclusions.
Photograph this card. Tomorrow, cover it and say each line first.
Previous and next
Connects to
Ask MrBadmus
Not sure if a link proves a cause?
The table and scatter graph use made-up round figures for practice, not real data.