Martina Morris (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199269013
- eISBN:
- 9780191601330
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199269017.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
For epidemiologists and public health professionals, the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has provoked a fundamental re-examination of infectious disease prevention and the research needed to support it. ...
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For epidemiologists and public health professionals, the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has provoked a fundamental re-examination of infectious disease prevention and the research needed to support it. This book documents and explains a breakthrough in behavioural research design that has emerged to confront this new challenge: the network survey. It represents a paradigm shift in epidemiology, broadening the focus from the traditional “knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP)” of individuals to mapping the relational networks that spread infection, and constrain behavioural change. Eight pioneering network studies from around the world are reviewed, with extensive detail on the sampling strategy, questionnaire development, fieldwork experiences, and key findings. In addition, there is an introduction that lays out the basics of network survey design, and a glossary of network terminology. This is a unique resource for all who wish to understand or undertake a network study.Less
For epidemiologists and public health professionals, the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has provoked a fundamental re-examination of infectious disease prevention and the research needed to support it. This book documents and explains a breakthrough in behavioural research design that has emerged to confront this new challenge: the network survey. It represents a paradigm shift in epidemiology, broadening the focus from the traditional “knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP)” of individuals to mapping the relational networks that spread infection, and constrain behavioural change. Eight pioneering network studies from around the world are reviewed, with extensive detail on the sampling strategy, questionnaire development, fieldwork experiences, and key findings. In addition, there is an introduction that lays out the basics of network survey design, and a glossary of network terminology. This is a unique resource for all who wish to understand or undertake a network study.
Eleni Petridou, Evi Germeni, and Mark Stevenson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199239481
- eISBN:
- 9780191716973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239481.003.022
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Epidemiology has been the principal discipline in preparing the grounds for the prevention of infectious diseases, several forms of cancer, and most cardiovascular diseases. However, it has ...
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Epidemiology has been the principal discipline in preparing the grounds for the prevention of infectious diseases, several forms of cancer, and most cardiovascular diseases. However, it has contributed relatively little towards the understanding of causation and prevention of injuries. This chapter presents an approach for teaching general injury epidemiology, covering teaching and learning objectives, teaching contents, and assessing students' achievements.Less
Epidemiology has been the principal discipline in preparing the grounds for the prevention of infectious diseases, several forms of cancer, and most cardiovascular diseases. However, it has contributed relatively little towards the understanding of causation and prevention of injuries. This chapter presents an approach for teaching general injury epidemiology, covering teaching and learning objectives, teaching contents, and assessing students' achievements.
Geoffrey C. Kabat
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231166461
- eISBN:
- 9780231542852
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166461.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does BPA threaten our health? How safe are certain dietary supplements, especially those containing exotic herbs or small amounts of toxic substances? Is the HPV ...
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Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does BPA threaten our health? How safe are certain dietary supplements, especially those containing exotic herbs or small amounts of toxic substances? Is the HPV vaccine safe? We depend on science and medicine as never before, yet there is widespread misinformation and confusion, amplified by the media, regarding what influences our health. In Getting Risk Right, Geoffrey C. Kabat shows how science works—and sometimes doesn't—and what separates these two very different outcomes.
Kabat seeks to help us distinguish between claims that are supported by solid science and those that are the result of poorly designed or misinterpreted studies. By exploring different examples, he explains why certain risks are worth worrying about, while others are not. He emphasizes the variable quality of research in contested areas of health risks, as well as the professional, political, and methodological factors that can distort the research process. Drawing on recent systematic critiques of biomedical research and on insights from behavioral psychology, Getting Risk Right examines factors both internal and external to the science that can influence what results get attention and how questionable results can be used to support a particular narrative concerning an alleged public health threat. In this book, Kabat provides a much-needed antidote to what has been called “an epidemic of false claims.”Less
Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does BPA threaten our health? How safe are certain dietary supplements, especially those containing exotic herbs or small amounts of toxic substances? Is the HPV vaccine safe? We depend on science and medicine as never before, yet there is widespread misinformation and confusion, amplified by the media, regarding what influences our health. In Getting Risk Right, Geoffrey C. Kabat shows how science works—and sometimes doesn't—and what separates these two very different outcomes.
Kabat seeks to help us distinguish between claims that are supported by solid science and those that are the result of poorly designed or misinterpreted studies. By exploring different examples, he explains why certain risks are worth worrying about, while others are not. He emphasizes the variable quality of research in contested areas of health risks, as well as the professional, political, and methodological factors that can distort the research process. Drawing on recent systematic critiques of biomedical research and on insights from behavioral psychology, Getting Risk Right examines factors both internal and external to the science that can influence what results get attention and how questionable results can be used to support a particular narrative concerning an alleged public health threat. In this book, Kabat provides a much-needed antidote to what has been called “an epidemic of false claims.”
Noel S. Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190651510
- eISBN:
- 9780190651541
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190651510.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology
Most epidemiology workbooks are used as supplements to existing texts. The student reads the chapter, finds the answers, and fills in the right blanks. This is good for understanding basic principles ...
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Most epidemiology workbooks are used as supplements to existing texts. The student reads the chapter, finds the answers, and fills in the right blanks. This is good for understanding basic principles and methods, but for students looking for real-world examples to sharpen their skills, there is Exercises in Epidemiology. The book’s seven chapters cover issues such as rates and proportions, causal inference, confounding, cohort studies, case-control studies, multiple causal pathways and effect modification, and screening.Less
Most epidemiology workbooks are used as supplements to existing texts. The student reads the chapter, finds the answers, and fills in the right blanks. This is good for understanding basic principles and methods, but for students looking for real-world examples to sharpen their skills, there is Exercises in Epidemiology. The book’s seven chapters cover issues such as rates and proportions, causal inference, confounding, cohort studies, case-control studies, multiple causal pathways and effect modification, and screening.
David A. Savitz and Gregory A. Wellenius
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190243777
- eISBN:
- 9780190243807
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190243777.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Interpreting Epidemiologic Evidence offers those who have had an introductory course in epidemiology the knowledge they need to make clear connections from research findings to practical ...
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Interpreting Epidemiologic Evidence offers those who have had an introductory course in epidemiology the knowledge they need to make clear connections from research findings to practical applications. Written in clear and lively prose, it empowers students at all levels to evaluate a study’s design, implementation, and ultimate findings, giving the guidance needed to apply the information appropriately. Liberal use of practical examples serves both to illustrate core concepts and to motivate readers to think critically about the causal connections that population health studies aim to explore.Less
Interpreting Epidemiologic Evidence offers those who have had an introductory course in epidemiology the knowledge they need to make clear connections from research findings to practical applications. Written in clear and lively prose, it empowers students at all levels to evaluate a study’s design, implementation, and ultimate findings, giving the guidance needed to apply the information appropriately. Liberal use of practical examples serves both to illustrate core concepts and to motivate readers to think critically about the causal connections that population health studies aim to explore.
Muriel R. Gillick M.D.
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635248
- eISBN:
- 9781469635255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635248.003.0008
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Palliative Medicine and Older People
Over the last fifty years, the hospital has been technologized, corporatized, and bureaucratized due to demographic, political, economic, and scientific developments. The demographic shift has led to ...
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Over the last fifty years, the hospital has been technologized, corporatized, and bureaucratized due to demographic, political, economic, and scientific developments. The demographic shift has led to the greying of the population, with an associated increase in chronic disease, resulting in hospitalized patients becoming sicker and more complex. Legislative changes such as the introduction of Medicare led to a surge in the number of hospitalizations of older individuals; the subsequent move to prospective payment led to shorter hospital stays—and increased reliance on the skilled nursing facility. A change in the economic climate produced consolidation, with the resulting growth of hospital chains and hospital systems. Scientific advances, fuelled in many cases by generous research grants from the National Institutes of Health, led to new, non-invasive imaging techniques such as computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Advances in biology and epidemiology led to new approaches to the hospital’s management of diseases as disparate as heart attacks and cancer.Less
Over the last fifty years, the hospital has been technologized, corporatized, and bureaucratized due to demographic, political, economic, and scientific developments. The demographic shift has led to the greying of the population, with an associated increase in chronic disease, resulting in hospitalized patients becoming sicker and more complex. Legislative changes such as the introduction of Medicare led to a surge in the number of hospitalizations of older individuals; the subsequent move to prospective payment led to shorter hospital stays—and increased reliance on the skilled nursing facility. A change in the economic climate produced consolidation, with the resulting growth of hospital chains and hospital systems. Scientific advances, fuelled in many cases by generous research grants from the National Institutes of Health, led to new, non-invasive imaging techniques such as computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Advances in biology and epidemiology led to new approaches to the hospital’s management of diseases as disparate as heart attacks and cancer.
Carol M. Ashton and Nelda P. Wray
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199968565
- eISBN:
- 9780199346080
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199968565.003.0003
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
The principles of design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical trials, including trials conducted for regulatory purposes, are sufficiently advanced that drugs and other therapeutic ...
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The principles of design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical trials, including trials conducted for regulatory purposes, are sufficiently advanced that drugs and other therapeutic interventions can be put to fair tests that provide valid evidence of efficacy and safety. However, clinical research—especially research that can make a product a winner or a loser—is not a value-free human endeavor. The rosiglitazone story exemplifies how medical product manufacturers can manipulate regulatory evidence by designing trials to ensure certain answers are—or are not—obtained, how companies can try to intimidate scientists whose research yields unfavorable evidence about a product, and how ambiguous can be the evidence from clinical trials. Federally-mandated comparative effectiveness research does not generate evidence used in product regulation, but it generates evidence that has market implications. It therefore will always be at risk for the same kinds of manipulation observed in the rosiglitazone saga.Less
The principles of design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical trials, including trials conducted for regulatory purposes, are sufficiently advanced that drugs and other therapeutic interventions can be put to fair tests that provide valid evidence of efficacy and safety. However, clinical research—especially research that can make a product a winner or a loser—is not a value-free human endeavor. The rosiglitazone story exemplifies how medical product manufacturers can manipulate regulatory evidence by designing trials to ensure certain answers are—or are not—obtained, how companies can try to intimidate scientists whose research yields unfavorable evidence about a product, and how ambiguous can be the evidence from clinical trials. Federally-mandated comparative effectiveness research does not generate evidence used in product regulation, but it generates evidence that has market implications. It therefore will always be at risk for the same kinds of manipulation observed in the rosiglitazone saga.
Elad Yom-Tov
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262034500
- eISBN:
- 9780262334808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034500.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Epidemiological research is the cornerstone of public health. Frequently, it begins with a hypothesis, for which data is then collected and the hypothesis is proved or disproved. This chapter ...
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Epidemiological research is the cornerstone of public health. Frequently, it begins with a hypothesis, for which data is then collected and the hypothesis is proved or disproved. This chapter describes how people’s searches on commercial search engines can also be used to improve public health, not only because it provides useful data for studies that are based on a hypothesis, but because they can be used to create new hypotheses. This chapter details how algorithms can scour data to discover adverse effects of drugs, to identify possible risk factors for disease, and to rapidly alert health authorities when mass gatherings such as music festivals become the breeding ground for disease.Less
Epidemiological research is the cornerstone of public health. Frequently, it begins with a hypothesis, for which data is then collected and the hypothesis is proved or disproved. This chapter describes how people’s searches on commercial search engines can also be used to improve public health, not only because it provides useful data for studies that are based on a hypothesis, but because they can be used to create new hypotheses. This chapter details how algorithms can scour data to discover adverse effects of drugs, to identify possible risk factors for disease, and to rapidly alert health authorities when mass gatherings such as music festivals become the breeding ground for disease.
John McGrath and Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019620
- eISBN:
- 9780262314602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019620.003.0008
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
Schizophrenia research encompasses many different categories of observation: (a) genetic research, which examines variants in single base pairs, (b) cellular and applied neuroscience, including ...
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Schizophrenia research encompasses many different categories of observation: (a) genetic research, which examines variants in single base pairs, (b) cellular and applied neuroscience, including animal models, (c) clinical research representing a broad spectrum of patient-centered research, and (d) population-based epidemiology and health services research. Each field of research has a natural tendency to become more specialized and, as a consequence, more inward looking. Meta-research, the study of the process of research per se, shows that creativity tends to occur at the boundaries of disciplines and research areas. This chapter examines ways to facilitate this type of cross-disciplinary translational research. Examples are provided of collaborative scientific programs that have used clues from fields such as epidemiology and genetics, and these clues are explored via the prism of various neuroscience platforms. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.Less
Schizophrenia research encompasses many different categories of observation: (a) genetic research, which examines variants in single base pairs, (b) cellular and applied neuroscience, including animal models, (c) clinical research representing a broad spectrum of patient-centered research, and (d) population-based epidemiology and health services research. Each field of research has a natural tendency to become more specialized and, as a consequence, more inward looking. Meta-research, the study of the process of research per se, shows that creativity tends to occur at the boundaries of disciplines and research areas. This chapter examines ways to facilitate this type of cross-disciplinary translational research. Examples are provided of collaborative scientific programs that have used clues from fields such as epidemiology and genetics, and these clues are explored via the prism of various neuroscience platforms. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.
T. M. Luhrmann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520291089
- eISBN:
- 9780520964945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520291089.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The introduction lays out what we know about the social context of schizophrenia from the epidemiological literature: that risk of schizophrenia is particularly high for immigrants from predominantly ...
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The introduction lays out what we know about the social context of schizophrenia from the epidemiological literature: that risk of schizophrenia is particularly high for immigrants from predominantly dark-skinned countries to Europe; that risk increases with lower socioeconomic status at birth and even at parent’s birth; that risk increases with urban dwelling and seems to increase the longer time is spent in cities; that risk increases as ethnic density in the neighborhood declines. The chapter presents a history of the way schizophrenia has been understood in the United States, and the diagnostic complexities of serious psychotic disorder. It then discusses what ethnographers have observed so far about the social conditions which may shape the experience of psychosis: the local cultural interpretation of mental illness; the role and presence of the family; the structure of work; and the basic social environment. This becomes the ground for our case studies.Less
The introduction lays out what we know about the social context of schizophrenia from the epidemiological literature: that risk of schizophrenia is particularly high for immigrants from predominantly dark-skinned countries to Europe; that risk increases with lower socioeconomic status at birth and even at parent’s birth; that risk increases with urban dwelling and seems to increase the longer time is spent in cities; that risk increases as ethnic density in the neighborhood declines. The chapter presents a history of the way schizophrenia has been understood in the United States, and the diagnostic complexities of serious psychotic disorder. It then discusses what ethnographers have observed so far about the social conditions which may shape the experience of psychosis: the local cultural interpretation of mental illness; the role and presence of the family; the structure of work; and the basic social environment. This becomes the ground for our case studies.
Mark Newman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198805090
- eISBN:
- 9780191843235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805090.003.0016
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
This chapter discusses the spread of diseases over contact networks between individuals and the methods used to model this process. The chapter begins with an introduction to the classic models of ...
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This chapter discusses the spread of diseases over contact networks between individuals and the methods used to model this process. The chapter begins with an introduction to the classic models of mathematical epidemiology, including the SI model, the SIR model, and the SIS model. Models for coinfection and competition between diseases are also discussed, as well as “complex contagion” models used to represent the spread of information. The remainder of the chapter deals with the behavior of these models on networks, where the behavior of spreading diseases depends strongly on network structure. It is shown that the SIR model maps to a bond percolation process on networks, allowing us to solve for static properties such as the total number of individuals infected in a disease outbreak. The case of the configuration model is developed in detail and the calculations are extended to competing diseases, coinfection, and complex contagion. Time-dependent behavior of diseases on networks is also studied using various differential equation approximations, including pair approximations and degree-based approximations.Less
This chapter discusses the spread of diseases over contact networks between individuals and the methods used to model this process. The chapter begins with an introduction to the classic models of mathematical epidemiology, including the SI model, the SIR model, and the SIS model. Models for coinfection and competition between diseases are also discussed, as well as “complex contagion” models used to represent the spread of information. The remainder of the chapter deals with the behavior of these models on networks, where the behavior of spreading diseases depends strongly on network structure. It is shown that the SIR model maps to a bond percolation process on networks, allowing us to solve for static properties such as the total number of individuals infected in a disease outbreak. The case of the configuration model is developed in detail and the calculations are extended to competing diseases, coinfection, and complex contagion. Time-dependent behavior of diseases on networks is also studied using various differential equation approximations, including pair approximations and degree-based approximations.
