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NSWBiologyQuick questions
Module 8: Non-infectious Disease and Disorders
Quick questions on Nutritional and environmental diseases: HSC Biology Module 8
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is burden?Show answer
Approximately 1.3 million Australians have type 2 diabetes (T2DM); around 5 percent of adults. The number is rising with obesity rates.
What is mechanism?Show answer
Insulin normally binds receptors on muscle, liver and fat cells, triggering glucose uptake via GLUT4 transporters. In T2DM, intracellular fat metabolites and inflammatory signalling impair insulin receptor signalling, producing insulin resistance. Beta cells compensate by hypersecreting insulin; over years they exhaust, glucose rises, and diabetes appears.
What are effects?Show answer
Chronic hyperglycaemia non-enzymatically glycates proteins, damaging blood vessel walls.
What is cause?Show answer
Inhalation or ingestion of asbestos fibres (chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite). Less common: erionite (a similar fibrous mineral) and high-dose radiation.
What is management?Show answer
Largely palliative. Pleurectomy and extrapleural pneumonectomy in selected patients. Chemotherapy with pemetrexed plus cisplatin.
What is prevention?Show answer
Asbestos was progressively banned in Australia from 1989; total ban in 2003. Home renovators remain at risk; pre-1990 buildings should be tested before renovation.
What is iodine deficiency?Show answer
Causes goitre and congenital cretinism. Reduced markedly in Australia by iodised salt and iodised baker's flour.
What is folate deficiency?Show answer
Causes neural tube defects in fetuses. Reduced by mandatory folate fortification of bread flour (Australia, 2009).
What is vitamin D deficiency?Show answer
Causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Reappearing in heavily veiled or housebound populations.
What is lead poisoning?Show answer
Causes neurological damage in children. Reduced by removal of lead from petrol (1986 to 2002) and house paint.
What is air pollution?Show answer
PM2.5 from traffic and bushfires causes COPD and ischaemic heart disease. Black Summer (2019 to 2020) bushfire smoke caused approximately 400 excess deaths in eastern Australia.
What are generic "lifestyle" risk factors?Show answer
Markers want specific mechanisms: smoking causes endothelial damage and oxidative stress; LDL promotes foam cell formation; hypertension shears the endothelium.
What is q1?Show answer
Distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes by cause and treatment. [3 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
AIHW data show Australian cardiovascular disease mortality fell from 380 per 100 000 in 1980 to 70 per 100 000 in 2024. If the 1980 population was 14.7 million, calculate the absolute number of deaths in 1980 and identify three contributing factors to the decline. [3 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Evaluate the role of environmental versus lifestyle factors in non-infectious disease. (a) Identify one disease primarily environmental. (b) Identify one disease primarily lifestyle-driven.