Environmental pollution as a cause of congenital anomalies is sometimes suspected because of clustering of anomalies in areas of higher exposure. This highlights questions around spatial heterogeneity (cluster...
Authors: Ben G Armstrong, Helen Dolk, Sam Pattenden, Martine Vrijheid, Maria Loane, Judith Rankin, Chris E Dunn, Chris Grundy, Lenore Abramsky, Patricia A Boyd, David Stone and Diana Wellesley
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2007
4:14
Malnutrition prevalence and mortality rates are increasingly used as essential indicators to assess the severity of a crisis, to follow trends, and to guide decision-making, including allocation of funds. Alth...
Authors: Claudine Prudhon and Paul B Spiegel
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2007
4:10
Accurate tools for assessing household wealth are essential for many health studies in developing countries. Household survey and participatory wealth ranking (PWR) are two approaches to generate data for this...
Authors: James R Hargreaves, Linda A Morison, John SS Gear, Julia C Kim, Mzamani B Makhubele, John DH Porter, Charlotte Watts and Paul M Pronyk
Measuring rates and circumstances of population mortality (in particular crude and under-5 year mortality rates) is essential to evidence-based humanitarian relief interventions. Because prospective vital even...
Timely and accurate data are necessary to prioritise and effectively respond to humanitarian emergencies. 30-by-30 cluster surveys are commonly used in humanitarian emergencies because of their purported simpl...
Authors: Paul B Spiegel
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2007
4:12
In two-stage cluster surveys, the traditional method used in second-stage sampling (in which the first household in a cluster is selected) is time-consuming and may result in biased estimates of the indicator ...
Authors: Rebecca F Grais, Angela MC Rose and Jean-Paul Guthmann
Geographical objectives and probabilistic methods are difficult to reconcile in a unique health survey. Probabilistic methods focus on individuals to provide estimates of a variable's prevalence with a certain...
Authors: Julie Vallée, Marc Souris, Florence Fournet, Audrey Bochaton, Virginie Mobillion, Karine Peyronnie and Gérard Salem
Health surveys are a very important component of the epidemiology toolbox, and play a critical role in gauging population health, especially in developing countries. Research on health survey methods, however,...
Authors: Kristof Bostoen, Oleg O Bilukha, Bridget Fenn, Oliver W Morgan, Clarence C Tam, Annemarie ter Veen and Francesco Checchi
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2007
4:13
In this paper we explore the strengths and gaps among NGO surveys based on an analysis of the records held in the CE-DAT database at CRED. We conclude by recommending the priority areas for strengthening NGO c...
Authors: Olivier Degomme and Debarati Guha-Sapir
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2007
4:11
Population size and density estimates are needed to plan resource requirements and plan health related interventions. Sampling frames are not always available necessitating surveys using non-standard household...
Authors: Kristof Bostoen, Zaid Chalabi and Rebecca F Grais
Survey data are traditionally collected using pen-and-paper, with double data entry, comparison of entries and reconciliation of discrepancies before data cleaning can commence. We used Personal Digital Assist...
Authors: Kizito Shirima, Oscar Mukasa, Joanna Armstrong Schellenberg, Fatuma Manzi, Davis John, Adiel Mushi, Mwifadhi Mrisho, Marcel Tanner, Hassan Mshinda and David Schellenberg
The study of inequities in health is a critical component of monitoring government obligations to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. In Aotearoa/New Zealand the indigenous Māori population has a substant...
Authors: Bridget Robson, Gordon Purdie, Fiona Cram and Shirley Simmonds
The incubation period of infectious diseases, the time from infection with a microorganism to onset of disease, is directly relevant to prevention and control. Since explicit models of the incubation period en...
An association between exposure to a risk factor and age-at-onset of disease may reflect an effect on the rate of disease occurrence or an acceleration of the disease process. The difference in age-at-onset ar...
A landmark randomised trial of male circumcision (MC) in Orange Farm, South Africa recently showed a large and significant reduction in risk of HIV infection, reporting MC effectiveness of 61% (95% CI: 34%–77%...
Authors: Kamal Desai, Marie-Claude Boily, Geoff P Garnett, Benoît R Mâsse, Stephen Moses and Robert C Bailey
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:19
Public health research and practice is faced with three problems: 1) a focus on disease instead of health, 2) consideration of risk factor/disease relationships one at a time, and 3) attention to individuals w...
Authors: Nancy L Fleischer, Ann M Weber, Susan Gruber, Karina Z Arambula, Maya Mascarenhas, Jessica A Frasure, Constance Wang and S Leonard Syme
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:18
There are several reasons that someone might be diagnosed with more than one primary cancer. The aim of this analysis was to determine combinations of cancer types that occur more often than expected. The expe...
Authors: Chris D Bajdik, Zenaida U Abanto, John J Spinelli, Angela Brooks-Wilson and Richard P Gallagher
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:17
A rich and growing body of literature has emerged on ethics in epidemiologic research and public health practice. Recent articles have included conceptual frameworks of public health ethics and overviews of hi...
Authors: Steven S Coughlin
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:16
The recent Immigration Bill debate in the United States Congress has again re-ignited the polemic regarding immigration policy. In this essay, I argue that disputes surrounding the legality of migrant workers ...
Authors: Clarence C Tam
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:15
Individuals might reasonably expect the freedom to make their own decisions regarding their health. However, what happens when an individual's wishes conflict with what is in that individual's best interests? ...
Authors: Katharine J Looker and Timothy B Hallett
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:14
Modern public health strives for maximizing benefits for the highest number of people while protecting individual rights. Restrictions on individual rights are justified for two reasons-for the benefit of the ...
Authors: Daniel A Salmon and Saad B Omer
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:13
Individuals' free choices in vaccination do not guarantee social optimum since individuals' decision is based on imperfect information, and vaccination decision involves positive externality. Public policy of ...
Authors: M Zia Sadique
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:12
Philosophical theories of collective action have produced a number of alternative accounts of the rationality and morality of self-interest and altruism. These have obvious applications to communicable disease...
Authors: Richard E Ashcroft
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:11
Surprisingly little is known regarding the human mixing patterns relevant to the spread of close-contact infections, such as measles, influenza and meningococcal disease. This study aims to estimate the number...
Authors: WJ Edmunds, G Kafatos, J Wallinga and JR Mossong
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2006
3:10
The goal of this paper is to analyze the stochastic dynamics of childhood infectious disease time series. We present an univariate time series analysis of pertussis, mumps, measles and rubella based on Box-Jen...
Authors: Helen Trottier, Pierre Philippe and Roch Roy
In their commentary on my paper Phillips and Goodman suggested that counterfactual causality and considerations on causality like those by Bradford Hill are only "guideposts on the road to common sense". I arg...
Diagnostic test evaluations are susceptible to random and systematic error. Simulated non-differential random error for six different error distributions was evaluated for its effect on measures of diagnostic ...
Regression calibration as a method for handling measurement error is becoming increasingly well-known and used in epidemiologic research. However, the standard version of the method is not appropriate for expo...
Authors: Ingvild Dalen, John P Buonaccorsi, Petter Laake, Anette Hjartåker and Magne Thoresen
Two persistent myths in epidemiology are that we can use a list of "causal criteria" to provide an algorithmic approach to inferring causation and that a modern "counterfactual model" can assist in the same en...
Immigration is increasing in Italy. In 2003, 2.6 million foreign citizens lived in the country; 52% were men and the majority were young adults who migrated for work. The purpose of this study was to investiga...
Authors: Laura Cacciani, Giovanni Baglio, Lorenza Rossi, Enrico Materia, Maurizio Marceca, Salvatore Geraci, Angela Spinelli, John Osborn and Gabriella Guasticchi
Currently, migrants and other mobile individuals, such as migrant workers and asylum seekers, are an expanding global population of growing social, demographic and political importance. Disparities often exist...
Authors: Brian D Gushulak and Douglas W MacPherson
Urban-rural comparisons are of limited relevance in examining the effects of urban migration in developing countries where urbanisation is due to growth of existing urban populations, expansion of urban bounda...
Authors: Tanica Lyngdoh, Sanjay Kinra, Yoav Ben Shlomo, Srinath Reddy, Dorairaj Prabhakaran, George Davey Smith and Shah Ebrahim
The epidemiologic literature is replete with conceptual discussions about causal inference, but little is known about how the causal criteria are applied in public health practice. The criteria for causal infe...
Authors: Mark Parascandola, Douglas L Weed and Abhijit Dasgupta
Conflict, poverty and HIV disproportionately affect people in sub-Saharan Africa. The manner in which governments, national and international organisations and the media report on the HIV epidemic in situation...
Authors: Massimo Lowicki-Zucca, Paul Spiegel and Filippo Ciantia
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2005
2:12
Bradford Hill's considerations published in 1965 had an enormous influence on attempts to separate causal from non-causal explanations of observed associations. These considerations were often applied as a che...
Authors: Michael Höfler
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2005
2:11
A new scientific discipline arose in the late 20th century known as biodemography. When applied to aging, biodemography is the scientific study of common age patterns and causes of death observed among humans and...
Authors: S Jay Olshansky, Mark Grant, Jacob Brody and Bruce A Carnes
Citation:Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
2005
2:10
This review summarises theoretical studies attempting to assess the population impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) use on mortality and HIV incidence. We describe the key parameters that determine the impac...
Authors: Rebecca F Baggaley, Neil M Ferguson and Geoff P Garnett
Previous studies have assessed the validity of the observational study design by comparing results of studies using this design to results from randomized controlled trials. The present study examined design f...
Authors: Arthur Hartz, Suzanne Bentler, Mary Charlton, Douglas Lanska, Yogita Butani, G Mustafa Soomro and Kjell Benson
Influenza-associated excess mortality is widely used to assess the severity of influenza epidemics. In Germany, however, it is not yet established as a routine component of influenza surveillance. We therefore...
Authors: Phillip Zucs, Udo Buchholz, Walter Haas and Helmut Uphoff
This paper provides a critique of the common practice in the health-policy literature of focusing on hypothetical outcome removal at the expense of intervention analysis. The paper begins with an introduction ...
Dengue is the most important arthropod-borne viral disease of public health significance. Compared with nine reporting countries in the 1950s, today the geographic distribution includes more than 100 countries...
In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS and violent conflict interact to shape population health and development in dramatic ways. HIV/AIDS can create conditions conducive to conflict. Conflict can affect the epidemio...
Authors: Nancy B Mock, Sambe Duale, Lisanne F Brown, Ellen Mathys, Heather C O'Maonaigh, Nina KL Abul-Husn and Sterling Elliott
In this first special theme issue, Emerging Themes in Epidemiology publishes a collection of articles on the theme of Epidemiology in conflict. Violent conflict is an issue of great sensitivity within public heal...
Authors: Clarence C Tam, Ben A Lopman, Olga Bornemisza and Egbert Sondorp
Applied epidemiologists are increasingly working in areas of insecurity and active conflict to define the health risks, suggest feasible means to reduce these risks and, monitor the capacity and reconstruction...
Authors: Sharon M McDonnell, Paul Bolton, Nadine Sunderland, Ben Bellows, Mark White and Eric Noji
There have been significant improvements in the design and management of humanitarian aid responses in the last decade. In particular, a significant body of knowledge has been accumulated about public health i...
Emerging Themes in Epidemiology is a new, online Open Access journal. This editorial – which coincides with the Journal's launch – describes its unique review and publication model. The editorial board and review...