GCSE · Biology · Edexcel · Spec 1BI0
Communicable vs non-communicable diseases
Athlete's foot and tuberculosis can be caught from someone. Coronary heart disease and osteoporosis can't. One question sorts them all, and the answer about lifestyle might surprise you.
Biology · Health and disease
Can you catch it from someone?
Pick a disease, then pick its box: can it be caught from someone, or not?
Still to sort
Communicable (0)
Caused by a pathogen and able to spread from person to person.
Where the line is: Pathogens include some bacteria, viruses, fungi and protists, and they spread by direct or indirect contact.
Non-communicable (0)
Cannot be spread from one person to another.
Where the line is: If a disease cannot pass between people, it belongs here, however it sounds.
A communicable disease is caused by a pathogen and can spread from person to person. A non-communicable disease cannot be spread from one person to another. Commit to a box first, then read why.
Relationship matrix
Tap any cell to reveal it. Tap a column header to read one property down every item.
Each cell hides a short answer and the reason behind it. Predict before you tap.
Predict, then check
You have just sorted diseases into two boxes. Now a question about lifestyle.
Do lifestyle factors such as hygiene and diet matter only for non-communicable diseases?
WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED
A quick recap of today's lesson.
One question sorts every disease: can it spread from person to person?
What you need to know
- A disease is a persistent deviation from a person's normal appearance, body function or behaviour.
- Communicable diseases are caused by pathogens, including some bacteria, viruses, fungi and protists.
- Communicable diseases can spread from person to person through direct or indirect contact.
- Athlete's foot (caused by a fungus) and tuberculosis (caused by bacteria) are communicable.
Have a goYour mate Sam says athlete's foot can't really be communicable because 'it's only a foot thing'. Which fact from the bullets above proves Sam wrong?
It is caused by a fungus, which is a pathogen, and communicable diseases can spread from person to person.
Where a disease shows up on the body does not decide its type. Being caused by a pathogen that can spread between people does.
- Non-communicable diseases cannot be spread from one person to another.
- Osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease such as coronary heart disease, and cancers are non-communicable.
Have a goOsteoporosis, coronary heart disease and cancers all sit in one box. What single test puts them there?
None of them can be spread from one person to another.
The test is spread between people. Non-communicable means exactly that: it cannot be passed on.
- A risk factor is something that increases the chance of ill health.
- Risk factors can be lifestyle (like smoking), genetic (like family history) or environmental (like air pollution).
- The more risk factors a person has, the more likely they are to develop the disease.
Have a goAlex smokes, drinks excessive alcohol and has an unbalanced diet. Jo has just one risk factor. Who is more likely to develop a non-communicable disease?
Alex, who has more risk factors.
More risk factors make the disease more likely. They raise the chance, so they do not make it certain.
- Lifestyle factors, such as hygiene and diet, affect the chances of developing both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
The big picture
Diseases split into communicable ones, caused by pathogens and able to spread from person to person, and non-communicable ones, which cannot be spread. Risk factors (lifestyle, genetic and environmental) affect the chance of a non-communicable disease, and lifestyle factors such as hygiene and diet affect the chances of both kinds.
Key points
Worked example
Problem
Mo smokes, eats an unbalanced diet, is exposed to air pollution and has a family history of cancer. Name the type of each risk factor and say what this means for Mo's chance of developing a non-communicable disease.
⚠ Watch out
Thinking lifestyle only matters for non-communicable diseases. Lifestyle factors such as hygiene and diet affect the chances of developing both kinds.
Memory hook
Catch it? Communicable. Can't catch it? Non-communicable. Hygiene and diet still count for both.
Check yourself
Without scrolling back up: which one question sorts a disease into communicable or non-communicable, and which kind of factor are hygiene and diet?
Flashcards
(11)What is a disease?
What causes communicable diseases?
Which types of organism can be pathogens?
How can communicable diseases spread?
Name one communicable disease caused by a fungus and one caused by bacteria.
Can non-communicable diseases be spread from one person to another?
Name three non-communicable diseases.
What is a risk factor?
Is exposure to lead a lifestyle, genetic or environmental risk factor?
What happens to the chance of disease as a person has more risk factors?
Which kinds of disease do hygiene and diet affect the chances of?
Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.
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