Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from May 2003

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from May 2003

An international scientific meeting on aspirin is needed. (Speaker's Corner).
May 1, 2003... Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is inexpensive and widely used to treat numerous common conditions. Perhaps its most important use now is the reduction of the risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. As with all medicines, there...

"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall, he will end by destroying the world." (Albert Schweitzer). (Aphorism of the Month).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... When he wrote these words in the 1950s, Schweitzer was regarded by many as at least eccentric, if not worse, despite the recent experience of global conflict and the first use of nuclear weapons. He was writing at about the time that Watson and...

Play areas for children. (The Jech Gallery).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Obesity in children is rising and health guidelines have recommended increasing children's physical activity levels to curb this tendency. (1) The association between obesity in children and deprivation has been noted (2) and in our study of...

Global leprosy elimination: time to change more than the elimination target date; contentious elimination target requires rethinking. (Editorial: Leprosy).
May 1, 2003... Despite the World Health Assembly's enthusiastic adoption in 1991 of a resolution to "eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by the year 2000", it remains an important cause of global chronic neurological disability. (1) The optimistic...

The relevance of population health indicators. (Commentary: Infant Mortality).
May 1, 2003... In this issue of the journal Daniel Reid-path and Pascale Allotey provocatively wonder if disability adjusted life expectancy (DALE) brings more information than infant mortality rate (IMR) when comparing the overall health status of different...

Infant mortality is not an adequate summary measure of population health: measuring the quantity of interest. (Commentary: Infant Mortality).
May 1, 2003... The World Health Organisation (WHO) annually reports infant mortality rates (IMR), child mortality rates, adult mortality rates, average life expectancies, and healthy life expectancies for all 191 member states. (1,2) IMR correlates highly...

Social capital. (Glossary).
May 1, 2003... This glossary aims to provide readers with some of the key terms that are relevant to a consideration of the relevance of social capital for health, and to introduce some of the debates on the concepts. A comprehensive review of the...

What is a public health observatory? (Public Health Policy and Practice).
May 1, 2003... WHY DEVELOP A WORKING DEFINITION OF AN OBSERVATORY? The dictionary definition of an observatory is (1): * An institution or building term specifically designed or equipped for observing meteorological and astronomical phenomena; *...

What are the most effective ways of improving population health through transport interventions? Evidence from systematic reviews. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: To review systematic review literature that describes the effectiveness of transport interventions in improving population health. Methods: Systematic review methodology was used to evaluate published and unpublished...

Environmental influences on healthcare expenditures: an exploratory analysis from Ontario, Canada. (Public Health Policy and Practice).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: This paper explores the relation between healthcare expenditures (HCEs) and environmental variables in Ontario, Canada. Design: The authors used a sequential two stage regression model to control for variables that may...

Retest reliability of surveillance questions on health related quality of life. (Theory and Methods).
May 1, 2003... Study objectives: Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important surveillance measure far monitoring the health of populations, as proposed in the American public health plan, Healthy People 2010. The authors investigated the retest...

Infant mortality rate as an indicator of population health. (Theory and Methods).
May 1, 2003... Background: The infant mortality rate (IMR) has been criticised as a measure of population health because it is narrowly based and likely to focus the attention of health policy on a small part of the population to the exclusion of the rest....

Care Need Index, a useful tool for the distribution of primary health care resources. (Theory and Methods).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: To demonstrate how Care Need Index (CNI), a social deprivation index, may be used to allocate total primary health care resources. Design: Cross sectional survey and register data. The CNI was based on sociodemographic...

Acute psychological effects of suspected bioterrorism. (Short Report).
May 1, 2003... It has been suggested that the psychological implications of chemical and biological weapons may be more serious than any potential acute physical effects. (1) We report an investigation into the acute psychological effects of exposure to...

Cross sectional survey of perpetrators, victims, and witnesses of violence in Bogota, Colombia. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Objectives: To establish the prevalence and distribution of witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of different types of violence in the general population and the proportion of victims consulting health services or reporting the incident to...

Social inequalities in depressive symptoms and physical functioning in the Whitehall II study: exploring a common cause explanation. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: This study investigated which risk factors might explain social inequalities in bath depressive symptoms and physical functioning and whether a common set of risk factors might account for the association between depressive...

Long term outcome after poliomyelitis in different health and social conditions. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Objective: To examine and compare the long term outcome after polio in an east European and a west European country with different access to rehabilitation and with different medical and social conditions. Design and Setting: The patients...

Joint effects of social class and community occupational structure on coronary mortality among black men and white men, upstate New York, 1988-92. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: Occupational structure represents the unequal geographical distribution at more desirable jobs among communities (for example, white collar labs). This study examines joint effects of social class, race, and county occupational...

Increased mortality related to heavy alcohol intake pattern. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: Although moderate alcohol intake is related to decreased all cause and ischaemic heart disease mortality, intake of large amounts at a time may be harmful. Design: A cohort study, average follow up time was 7.3 years. ...

Relation between number of siblings and adult mortality and stroke risk: 25 year follow up of men in the Collaborative study. (Research Report).
May 1, 2003... Study objective: To investigate the relation between number of siblings, mortality risk, and stroke risk. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: 27 workplaces in Scotland. Participants: 5765 employed men aged 35-64 from a...

Letter.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2003... If you have a burning desire to respond to a paper published in JECH, why not make use of our "rapid response" option? Log on to our web site (www.jech.com), find the paper that interests you, and send your response via email by clicking on...

The health of nations: why inequality is harmful to your health? (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... I Kawachi, B P Kennedy. (Pp 220; $25.95). New York: The New Press, 2002, ISBN 1-56584-582-X. It was only six years ago that Richard G Wilkinson published his path-breaking book Unhealthy societies. The afflictions of inequality, in which...

Continuous morbidity registration sentinel stations. The Netherlands 2000. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Edited by A I M Bartelds. (Pp 162; [euro]l5.) Utrecht: NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for health services research, 2002. ISBN 90-6905-555-4. The purpose of the book is to present data gathered by 67 general practitioners (GPs) in a national...