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Practise 36 exam-style questions on Health issues for AQA GCSE Biology. Write your answer as you would in the exam and get it marked in seconds against the mark scheme, point by point, with an AI tutor on hand if you get stuck.
Here are 4 of the questions in this topic, each with a model answer, an explanation of why it earns the marks and the mark scheme an examiner would use.
Name three main organs that are affected by cystic fibrosis (CF).
Lungs, pancreas, small intestine
CF causes thick, sticky mucus affecting lung function, and blocks pancreatic ducts reducing enzyme flow to the small intestine, impairing digestion.
Lungs
Pancreas
Small intestine (or bowel)
Give one limitation of using correlation to claim that smoking causes cardiovascular disease.
Correlation does not prove causation; there may be confounding factors (e.g., diet, socioeconomic status) or reverse causation.
An observed association might be due to other variables that influence both smoking and disease; controlled studies are needed to infer causation.
Correlation does not prove causation / could be confounding factors
Other factors (confounders) may explain the association (e.g., diet, exercise, income)
Explain why incubation of pathogenic bacteria at 37°C is used in scientific studies but students are advised to incubate at 25°C.
37°C is close to human body temperature so it gives optimal growth for human pathogens, producing more relevant results. 25°C is cooler so reduces the risk of rapid growth and reduces danger to students in schools.
Scientists use 37°C to mimic human conditions for pathogens; teaching labs use 25°C to limit pathogenic growth and reduce the biohazard risk to students.
37°C is close to human body temperature so pathogens grow well / show characteristic behaviour
25°C is safer for school students (slower growth, lower risk of infection / contamination)
25°C reduces growth rate so experiments are safer in teaching labs
Award if different wording of safety / slower growth is given
Describe how you would use a scatter diagram and correlation to investigate whether smoking prevalence in regions is associated with incidence of cardiovascular disease.
Collect paired data for smoking prevalence (%) and cardiovascular disease incidence in multiple regions. Plot smoking % (x-axis) vs disease incidence (y-axis) as a scatter plot. Draw line of best fit and describe direction and strength of correlation (positive/negative/none). Calculate correlation coefficient to quantify association and use statistical tests to assess significance.
A scatter plot visualises the relationship between two variables; correlation measures the strength and direction. Statistical tests determine if association is unlikely due to chance; sampling and confounders must be considered.
Collect paired data for smoking prevalence and disease incidence in many regions (sampling / epidemiological data)
Plot smoking (%) on x-axis and disease incidence on y-axis as a scatter diagram
Draw line of best fit and describe the direction/strength of correlation (e.g., positive/negative/strong/weak/no correlation)
Calculate correlation coefficient / perform statistical test to assess significance (and consider confounding factors)
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