46 exam-style questions on Optional theme: Food and health with answers and explanations. Six real samples below — the full set is free with an account.
Study Table 1, which shows three food and health indicators for three countries. Which statement is fully supported by the data shown?
Answer: Country Q's energy supply exceeds average needs, yet one child in five is stunted
Only the first statement stays inside the table: Country Q's 2 900 kcal is above the 2 200 kcal reference requirement printed below the data, yet 21 % of its under-fives are stunted. HALE is not life expectancy at birth, and three cases cannot establish a cause.
India's national dietary energy supply is above average requirements, yet the National Family Health Survey of 2019-21 found that about 57 % of women aged 15-49 were anaemic, and many low-income diets rest on refined cereals and cooking oil. Which term describes this nutritional situation most precisely?
Answer: Malnutrition caused by poor dietary quality
Malnutrition covers any imbalance of energy or nutrients, including micronutrient deficiency such as iron. Undernourishment refers only to insufficient dietary energy, which is not what these households lack - which is why a national calorie figure can look adequate while anaemia stays common.
In rural districts of Malawi many households live more than an hour's walk from the nearest health centre, although the government reports the same national immunisation target for every district. Which indicator would best expose this inequality in access to health care?
Answer: Births attended by skilled health personnel, by district
Only a service-use indicator broken down by district shows who actually reaches care; national averages and spending totals hide the sub-national gap that walking distance creates. Access indicators measure provision reaching people, not money allocated or food available.
Fulani herders in the Sahel of Niger move cattle across large areas of dry grassland, buy almost no external inputs, and consume most of the milk and meat within their own households, selling only small surpluses in local markets. How is this food production system best classified?
Answer: Extensive subsistence pastoralism
Intensity is measured by inputs per hectare, not by the total area used, so a large, low-input system is extensive. Output consumed mainly within the producing household, with only a small surplus sold, is subsistence rather than commercial.
A new influenza strain appears first in the largest cities on several continents that are linked by direct flights, and reaches small rural towns only weeks later. Which type of diffusion does this pattern show?
Answer: Hierarchical diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion jumps down a settlement hierarchy along connections rather than spreading outwards into neighbouring space, which is what contagious diffusion would produce.
Highland districts of Kenya above about 2 000 m have historically had very little malaria transmission, although Anopheles mosquitoes are common in the lowlands nearby. Which physical factor best explains this?
Answer: Temperatures are too low for the parasite to develop in the mosquito
Development of Plasmodium inside the mosquito effectively stops below roughly 18 degrees C, so altitude limits transmission through temperature, not through the absence of the vector. Warming is now pushing transmission into some of these highland fringes.
46 Optional theme: Food and health questions — free with an account. Spaced repetition, streaks and full exam simulations included.
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