Sample Test Questions

The following are examples of the types of questions that might appear on a certification examination. These are not questions that have been used on past examinations, nor are they from the item bank used to create future examinations. They are simply practice questions drawn from The Health Education Specialist: A Study Guide for Professional Competence. Click here for ordering information

You can find the answers by clicking on the link at the end of the questions.

1. Attempting to provoke change within society using tools, such as educational activities, coalition building, lobbying and media communication is:
   1. consumer-driven health care.
   2. cultural competence.
   3. health literacy.
   4. advocacy.


2. Program planning begins with:
   1. assessment of existing health needs and problems.
   2. identification of different practice settings.
   3. measurement of social marketing process.
   4. evaluation of learning objectives.


3. A health department wishes to create educational print materials for community members with language disorders and low literacy levels. Which of the following is most effective in determining the reading level of those written materials?
   1. Log-Gunning Index
   2. Crisp Readability Formula
   3. FLASH
   4. SMOG


4. “All pregnant women participating in the WIC Supplemental Food Program will eliminate alcohol from their diets after the first nutritional counseling appointment” is an example of a:
   1. program objective.
   2. behavioral objective.
   3. learning objective.
   4. goal statement.


5. After a clean indoor air ordinance passes with the help of your advocacy efforts, Big Tobacco attempts to overturn it. Your community health coalition stops its campaign. Which type of advocacy benchmark is this?
   1. Changing definitions/reframing
   2. Holding the line
   3. Shift in critical mass
   4. Institutional policy


6. A local hospital has hired a company to work with the staff on team building. Time schedules, fees, and written goals and objectives have been developed. Which one of the following best describes this consultation process?
   1. Voluntary
   2. Informal
   3. Formal
   4. Required


7. A health educator wishes to describe a community’s perceptions of its health needs, as well as its opinions about the local health department. Which type of research method is best?
   1. Qualitative
   2. Documentary
   3. Quantitative
   4. Procedural


8. Pretesting participants’ knowledge of effective weight management techniques may be helpful in:
   1. guaranteeing that all participants lose weight.
   2. determining intervention strategies.
   3. achieving appropriate body composition.
   4. learning what causes obesity.


9. A group of new immigrants in an urban community has an outbreak of measles among their children. They resist immunization. The health educator’s job is to quickly develop an education and recruitment campaign to forestall a serious epidemic. Which of the following is the first step in the implementation process for this program?
   1. Gain acceptance for the program
   2. Specify tasks and estimate resources
   3. Develop plans for program activities
   4. Put the plans into action


10. Which of the following is the first step in designing a survey?
    1. Defining the questions to be used on the survey
    2. Determining the types of scales to be used
    3. Determining the objectives of the survey
    4. Determining the specific data to be collected


11. Your agency needs volunteers at a local health awareness event. Before you begin your recruitment campaign, you should first:
    1. develop a volunteer job description.
    2. create the volunteer newsletter.
    3. determine the volunteer reward/incentive system.
    4. plan the volunteer recognition banquet.


12. Which primary data collection method is used to gather data through direct surveillance of the population under study?
    1. Surveys
    2. Community forum
    3. Observation
    4. Nominal group process


13. A health educator has been asked to write an opinion article on the benefits of a school-based, teen pregnancy prevention program. Which of the following is the most appropriate database to use for this literature review?
    1. ERIC
    2. MEDLINE/PUBMED
    3. Internet sites
    4. Engineering Abstracts


14. Identifying and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the way a health educator implements a program is best described as what type of evaluation?
    1. Simulation
    2. Formative
    3. Summative
    4. Impact


15. The short term effects of health education interventions are most often directed toward:
    1. achieving changes in health knowledge, attitudes, skills or behavior.
    2. reducing health care costs.
    3. increasing contraceptive use.
    4. decreasing morbidity and mortality rates.

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