Question

a public health nurse is calculating the attack rate following a food - borne illness outbreak after a community picnic. which of the following groups of people should the nurse include in the denominator of the attack rate calculation? all people who attended the event all people who ate the specific food item and did not become ill all people who ate the specific food item and became ill all people who ate the specific food item

Explanation:

Attack rate for a food - borne illness outbreak is calculated as the number of people who became ill after eating a specific food divided by the number of people who ate that specific food. So the denominator should be all people who ate the specific food item.

• Option "All people who attended the event" is incorrect because not all attendees may have eaten the specific food.
• Option "All people who ate the specific food item and did not become ill" is part of the denominator but not the entire denominator (the denominator includes both ill and non - ill who ate the food).
• Option "All people who ate the specific food item and became ill" is the numerator, not the denominator.

Answer:

D. All people who ate the specific food item