Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from January 2003

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from January 2003

A homage to Dr Bengoa: the world's conscience of community nutrition. (The JECH Gallery).
January 1, 2003... Dr Jose Maria Bengoa, 88 years old, was designated as one of the Public Health Heroes of the Americas by the PAHO, last February in Caracas (Venezuela). His own words referring to this distinction were... "My only merit has been having reached...

MI myopia: finding the focus on angina. (Speaker's corner).(Editorial)
January 1, 2003... MI IS EASY Why does the gaze of "coronary heart disease" epidemiology focus on fatal or non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI)? One reason is that it is easy to study. Cardiologists recognise a number of acute coronary syndromes, of which MI...

The world is a fast flowing river. (Aphorism of the Month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... One of the powerful aphorisms in giving shape to the New Public Health in the 1980s was the notion that the world was a fast flowing river, with healthcare workers standing on the banks with white water swirling below. Every so often a drowning...

Objectivity and the neutral expert: objective science should not be without values. (Ethics and Public Health).
January 1, 2003... Debate over whether mammography screening saves lives has become front page news again in recent months. The opening salvo came in October 2001 from Gotzsche and Olsen, who argued in the Lancet that five of the seven randomised trials of...

Science, ethics, and professional public health practice: competing values and obligations. (Ethics and Public Health).(Editorial)
January 1, 2003... PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE At the core of professional public health practice is a promise to help society by preventing disease and promoting health. Public health is a calling, as much an art as it is steeped in scientific theory, method,...

Self care and consumer health. Do we need a public health ethics? Bioethical principlism is not enough for dealing with global public health issues. (Ethics and Public Health).
January 1, 2003... Bioethical principlism places an emphasis on autonomy. In a certain analogous way, modern promotional public health emphasises the role of self care as a key element to achieve healthy states. One of the many presumed available sources of...

A glossary for research in occupational health. (Glossary).(Glossary)
January 1, 2003... This glossary includes a selection of terms pertaining to the field of research in occupational health. The glossary is mostly addressed to readers not familiarised with the more specific terms used in the study and protection of workers'...

Health impact assessment of housing improvements: incorporating research evidence. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
January 1, 2003... Background: Health impact assessment {HIA) has been widely recommended for future social policies and investment, such as housing improvement. However, concerns have been raised about the utility and predictive value of an HIA. Use of existing...

Avoidable hospitalisation rates in Singapore, 1991-1998: assessing trends and inequities of quality in primary care. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
January 1, 2003... Study objectives: To assess avoidable hospitalisation as an indicator of quality of primary care by examining trends and gender and ethnic variations. Design and setting: Aggregated nationwide data in Singapore from 1991 to l998 were...

Social capital and leisure time physical activity: a population based multilevel analysis in Malmo, Sweden. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Objective: To investigate the influence of social capital and individual factors on the level of leisure time physical inactivity in the neighbourhoods. Methods: The public health survey in Malmo 1994 is a cross sectional study. A total of...

Differential correlates of physical activity in urban and rural adults of various socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Study objectives: Few studies have analysed the rates and correlates of physical activity in economically and geographically diverse populations. Objectives were to examine: (1) urban-rural differences in physical activity by several...

Children born in the summer have increased risk for coeliac disease. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Study objective: Coeliac disease, also called permanent gluten sensitive enteropathy, is being recognised as a widespread health problem. Defining the possible role of environmental factors in its aetiology might open doors to primary...

Impact of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position on cause specific mortality: the Oslo mortality study. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Objective: To study the impact of childhood and adulthood social circumstances on cause specific adult mortality. Design: Census data on housing conditions from 1960 and Personal Register income data for 1990 were linked to 1990-94 death...

Is retirement good or bad for mental and physical health functioning? Whitehall II longitudinal study of civil servants. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Background: To determine whether retirement at age 60 is associated with improvement or deterioration in mental and physical health, when analysed by occupational grade and gender. Methods: Longitudinal study of civil servants aged 54 to 59...

Effect of short-term exposure to gaseous pollution on asthma hospitalisation in children: a bi-directional case-crossover analysis. (Research Report).
January 1, 2003... Study objective: Assess associations between short-term exposure to gaseous pollutants and asthma hospitalisation among boys and girls 6 to 12 years of age. Design: A bi-directional case-crossover analysis was used. Conditional logistic...

Social inequalities in health by individual and household measures of social position in a cohort of healthy people. (Theory and Methods).
January 1, 2003... Study objective: It is increasingly recognised that different dimensions of social inequality may be linked to health by different pathways. Furthermore, factors operating at the individual level such as employment conditions may affect health...

Low response rate schools in surveys of adolescent risk taking behaviours: possible biases, possible solutions. (Theory and Methods).
January 1, 2003... Study objective: To examine the potential biases introduced when students in low response rate schools are dropped from classroom based surveys of adolescent risk taking behaviour. Design: Self administered confidential surveys were...

Collecting behavioural data using the world wide web: considerations for researchers. (Theory and Methods).
January 1, 2003... Objective: To identify and describe advantages, challenges, and ethical considerations of web based behavioural data collection. Methods: This discussion is based on the authors' experiences in survey development and study design,...

Comparative analysis of nutrition data from national, household, and individual levels: results from a WHO-CINDI collaborative project in Canada, Finland, Poland, and Spain *. (Theory and Methods).
January 1, 2003... Study objective: This project determined to what extent data on diet and nutrition, which were collected in a non-uniform manner, could be harmonised and pooled for international and national comparison. Design: Direct comparisons of...