Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from July 2003

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from July 2003

Mental health and "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland: implications of civil unrest for health and wellbeing; mental health and social capital. (Civil Unrest).
July 1, 2003... Mental ill health is the new global epidemic and its wider determinants of great social significance. (1) In this issue O'Reilly and Stevenson present findings from Northern Ireland indicating that the prolonged civil conflict there seems to...

Routine statistics: more interest is needed; public health also depends on information systems. (Statistics).
July 1, 2003... The World Health Organisation's annual report of the year 20001 illustrated at least two features of health information systems at present. One is that the public is eager to compare, evaluate, and discuss health topics using "information...

Determinism versus stochasticism: in support of long coffee breaks; is there a recipe for the causal pie? (Causation in Epidemiology).
July 1, 2003... In his recent article describing what characterises a useful concept of causation in epidemiology, (1) Olsen provides a useful overview of the now popular component-cause model and its relevance for epidemiological research, and renews the call...

"You shouldn't be in public health if you can't start a rumour". (Aphorism of the Month).
July 1, 2003... I have always thought that being able to arouse the interest of the general public in important issues that may not be at the forefront of their minds was an essential aspect of public health practice. Influencing channels of communication from...

Basic glossary on genetic epidemiology. (Glossary).(Glossary)
July 1, 2003... This is the second of a series of three glossaries on genetic concepts used in epidemiological research that the journal is publishing with the objective of helping the reader "walk" around the journal. The first glossary, on basic...

The urge for evidence based knowledge. (Speaker's Corner).(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... Clearly, the context of health sciences is increasingly been influenced by a general commitment related to interventions intending to improve the health conditions of individuals and populations brought by the so called evidence based...

The unbearable lightness of healthcare policy making: a description of a process aimed at giving it some weight. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
July 1, 2003... Objectives: To investigate whether a structured process to involve policy makers in designing a research project on a return to work insurance policy would yield evidence that was relevant, useful, and used in policy decisions. Study...

Mental health in Northern Ireland: have "the Troubles" made it worse?. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
July 1, 2003... Objectives: To measure the effects of the civil unrest (the Troubles) on the mental health of the general population of Northern Ireland. Design: A secondary analysis of a nationally representative population survey conducted in 1997. ...

Infant mortality and family welfare: policy implications for Indonesia. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
July 1, 2003... Study objective: To examine the effect of family welfare index (FWI) and maternal education on the probability of infant death. Design: A population based multistage stratified clustered survey. Setting: Women of reproductive age in...

Water fluoridation, stillbirths, and congenital abnormalities. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Apart from an increase in dental fluorosis, recent reviews of water fluoridation found little evidence of adverse effects. (1 2) Several studies looked at congenital abnormalities, two of which found a negative effect of water fluoridation,...

Education and income: which is more important for mental health? (Research Report).
July 1, 2003... Study objective: To assess which indicators of socioeconomic status are associated with an increased prevalence of common mental disorders. Design: Cross sectional household survey. Setting: Santiago, Chile. Participants: Random...

Gender differences in education related health inequalities in Chinese northern rural areas: 1993 and 2001. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Recently, there has been some evidence that the magnitude of social inequalities in health differed between men and women.' Yet, those studies were carried out mostly in the industrialised world, and their conclusions were inconsistent....

Childhood social class and adulthood obesity: findings from the glasgow alumni cohort. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Associations between obesity and adverse health outcomes, including cardiorespiratory disease, diabetes, and cancer, are well documented. (1) These diseases are likely to pose ever increasing public health problems as the prevalence of obesity...

Nitrate in community water supplies and incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Sardinia, Italy. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Studies of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) evaluating risk associated with nitrate concentrations in community water supplies have found inconsistent results. (1-4) To further explore this hypothesis, we compared the NHL incidence in 1974-1993...

Motor vehicle driver injury and socioeconomic status: a cohort study with prospective and retrospective driver injuries. (Research Report).
July 1, 2003... Study objective: To investigate the association between motor vehicle driver injury and socioeconomic status. Design: Cohort study with prospective and retrospective outcomes. Setting: New Zealand. Participants: 10 525 adults...

Physical inactivity: a risk factor for low back pain in the general population? (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Heavy physical work load, frequent lifting, frequent bending and twisting, and extreme sports activities are established risk factors for low back pain (LBP). (1) Lack of physical activity, on the other hand, is also often seen as a risk...

Community income and surgical rates in the Netherlands. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Background: The study describes variations in use of surgical procedures by community income in the Netherlands. From the literature it is known that surgical rates have a socioeconomic gradient. Both positive and negative associations of...

Socioeconomic deprivation, travel distance, and renal replacement therapy in the Trent Region, United Kingdom 2000: an ecological study. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... The incidence of chronic renal failure rises with age and is higher in men and in people of Asian and Afro-Caribbean origin. A study using data from 1991-3 found that renal replacement therapy rates were related to age, ethnicity, socioeconomic...

Elderly people and the public health service: a much desirable marriage. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Rocketing healthcare demands are not currently paralleled by available economic resources and the fight against inappropriateness has had only a modest impact. Distribution equilibrium is afforded by various concealed and unconcealed filters to...

Evidence, hierarchies, and typologies: horses for courses. (Theory and Methods).
July 1, 2003... Debate is ongoing about the nature and use of evidence in public health decision making, and there seems to be an emerging consensus that the "hierarchy of evidence" may be difficult to apply in other settings. It may be unhelpful however to...

Missing, mediocre, or merely obsolete? An evaluation of UK data sources for coronary heart disease. (Theory and Methods).
July 1, 2003... Study objective: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the commonest cause of death in the UK. However, there is no single comprehensive source of information to support CHD prevention and treatment strategies. Therefore this study evaluated the...

Effects of disseminating research findings on response rates in a community survey: a randomised controlled trial. (Short Report).
July 1, 2003... Response rates to postal questionnaire surveys are declining,' particularly in areas of deprivation. (2) These may limit the external and internal validity of the findings of such studies. A recent systematic review3 identified interventions...

Performance of the WHO Rose angina questionnaire in post-menopausal women: are all of the questions necessary? (Theory and Methods).
July 1, 2003... Objective: To assess the performance of a shortened version of the Rose angina questionnaire focusing on exertional chest pain. Methods: Cross sectional analysis of 3987 women aged 60 to 79 years from 23 British towns. The performances of...

Ethnicity, class and health. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... J Y Nozroo. (Pp 196; [pounds sterling]14.95). Policy Studies Institute, 2001. ISBN 0-85374-792-X. Anyone concerned with the complex interrelations of ethnicity and class to health should peruse this volume. It is one of a series based on...

Hospitals in a changing Europe.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by M McKee, J Healy. Open University Press, Buckingham, 2002. (Pp 288; [pounds sterling]65.00 (hbk), [pounds sterling]22.50 (pbk)). ISBN 0-335-20929-7 (hbk), 0-335-20928-9 (pbk) The stated objectives of this anthology are to provide...

Statistics at square one, 10th ed.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... T D V Swinscow, M J Campbell. (Pp 158; [pounds sterling]11 .95). BMJ Books, 2002. ISBN 0-7279-1552-5. This book provides a nice overview of many basic statistical methods. It is clearly focused to be used by, for example, epidemiologists...

Evidence-based public health.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... R C Brownson, E A Baker, T I Leet, K N Gillespie. (Pp 235; $C69.95). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003. ISBN 0-19-514376-0 Within the recent outburst of "evidence-based" books covering now many medical specialties, this book is another...

Textbook of cancer epidemiology.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by H O Adami, D Hunter, D Trichopoulos. Oxford University Press, 2002. Vol 33 in the Series "Monographs in Epidemiology and Biostatistics" (Pp 599; [pounds sterling50, [euro]75}. ISBN 0-19-510969-4. Multiauthored books often look...

Regulating entrepreneurial behaviour in European health care systems.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by R B Saltman, R Busse, E Mossialos. (Pp 240; [pounds sterling]22.50 (pbk), [pounds sterling]65.00 (hbk)). Open University Press, Buckingham, 2002. ISBN 0-335-20922-X (pbk); 0-335-20923-8 (hbk) This is a hugely interesting book on...

Drug resistant TB needs rapid action. (Hygieia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The re-emergence of tuberculosis as a global health problem over the past 20 years prompted researchers from the Public Health Laboratory Service (UK) to use data from Mycobnet (UK Mycobacterial Resistance Network) to identify levels of drug...

Mixed media fails to move masses. (Hygieia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A mass media campaign in Denmark aimed at convincing more young adults to take tests for Chlamydia trachomatis failed, achieving a response rate of just 0.6% (Sexually Transmitted Infections 2001;77:416-18). The infection, which is widespread...

Science versus smokescreens. (Hygieia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Public health advocates should turn to science more often to reinforce their arguments. In a study on the development of workplace smoking regulations, researchers found that the protobacco lobby were more likely to use scientific arguments...

Americans fear Americans with guns. (Hygieia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... In contrast with what the NRA argue, the American public believes that increased gun carrying by others reduces rather than increases their safety. (Injury Prevention 200l;7:282-5). Twenty eight states have significantly relaxed restrictions on...

Sex, models, and mathematics. (Hygieia).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Sex and mathematics are an unorthodox combination but a recent paper brings the two together to demonstrate how mathematical models can be used to facilitate epidemiology and control. The article is intended for use by non-mathematicians and...