Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health articles from September 2003

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health archives from September 2003

Severe acute respiratory syndrome and Toronto: early detection and isolation of suspected cases is the key.(Editorials)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... "I hold my breath in elevators even empty ones". (1) This was the view of one Toronto resident I read in a local newspaper in late April this year. I had just joined, as an observer, the Federal Emergency Operations Centre that had been...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome.(Editorials)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... A challenge for public health In this issue of the journal, Lee and Abdullah focus on the adoption of hygienic and health promotion measures in Hong Kong for controlling the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). (1) One of...

Science, policy, politics, a complex and unequal world and the emerging of a new infectious disease.(Speaker's corner)
September 1, 2003... In developed countries, infectious diseases (ID) fully dominated the population health problems until the first decades of the past century, and continue in poorest countries today. Epidemics like plague or cholera, at different times, have...

Environmental hygiene in Shanghai: meat for sale.(The JECH Gallery)
September 1, 2003... Caption: This photograph was taken in March this year on a street in Shanghai just before SARS became world news. It reminds us that environmental health is still an issue in many parts of the world, even in such apparently booming and...

Influential women in occupational health.(Speaker's corner)
September 1, 2003... Today, epidemiological concerns about safety and health in the workplace draw communities together. From asbestos related disease to lead poisoning, we are informed of the social and monetary costs of poor health. In this context, amidst...

"Success has 100 parents, failure is an orphan".(Aphorism Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In the academic world, we are taught that plagiary is more or less the ultimate sin, yet in public health practice we are suffering from a deficit of plagiary and unwillingness to do things that were "not invented here". (1) Civil servants, on...

A glossary for health impact assessment: health impact assessments look at the effect on health of policies implemented outside the healthcare sector. A glossary is provided in the following article.(Glossary)
September 1, 2003... BASIC CONCEPTS It has long been recognised that health and its determinants (1) are strongly influenced by policies outside the healthcare sector, for example, transport, regeneration projects, and housing. In recent years, several...

The SARS epidemic in Hong Kong.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... The unprecedented epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) struck Hong Kong in March to May 2003. From 11 March to 20 May 2003, a total of 1718 SARS cases had been identified (fig 1). (1) During the same period, 253 people had died...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome: a challenge for public health practice in Hong Kong.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is now a global challenge affecting more than 8000 patients in different continents. The dictum of public health practice especially for infectious disease is "prevention better than cure". It is...

Influential women in occupational health Sophia Kisting, MD: internationalist seeking global standards.(The JECH Gallery)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... April 1950-- Country of birth: Namibia Sophia Kisting works to reduce HIV infection, improve reproductive health, and conduct occupational surveillance, assessing workers for silicosis and asbestosis. A physician and researcher at the...

Assessing health impact assessment: multidisciplinary and international perspectives.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... Health impact assessment (HIA) seeks to expand evaluation of policy and programmes in all sectors, both private and public, to include their impact on population health. While the idea that the public's health is affected by a broad array of...

Assessing the health impact of local amenities: a qualitative study of contrasting experiences of local swimming pool and leisure provision in two areas of Glasgow.(Evidence Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To assess the health impacts of local public swimming pool and leisure provision. Design: Retrospective qualitative study using focus groups. Reports from two areas with contrasting experience of provision of a public...

Bicycle helmet campaigns and head injuries among children. Does poverty matter?(Evidence Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: To assess the impact of a community based bicycle helmet programme aimed at children aged 5-12 years (about 140 000) from poor and well off municipalities. Methods: A quasi-experimental design, including a control group, was...

Response to requests for general practice out of hours: geographical analysis in north west England.(Short Report)
September 1, 2003... The organisation of out of hours general practice (GP) in the UK has changed rapidly in recent years as practice based rotas and deputising services have given way to GP cooperatives in many areas. (1) At the same time, the proportion of...

Prevention of smoking in adolescents with lower education: a school based intervention study.(Evidenced Based Public Health Policy And Practice)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To assess the effect of an antismoking intervention focusing on adolescents in lower education. Students with lower education smoke more often and perceive more positive norms, and social pressure to smoke, than higher educated...

Socioeconomic position in early life, birth weight, childhood cognitive function, and adult mortality. A longitudinal study of Danish men born in 1953.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To examine the relation between socioeconomic position in early life and mortality in young adulthood, taking birth weight and childhood cognitive function into account. Design: A longitudinal study with record linkage to the...

Social inequalities in low birth weight in England and Wales: trends and implications for future population health.
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To examine social inequalities and trends in low birth weight in England and Wales. Design: Analysis of routine birth data, comparing (a) couple and sole registered births, and (b) manual and non-manual occupational...

Socioeconomic health inequalities among a nationally representative sample of Danish adolescents: the role of different types of social relations.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To investigate the role of different types of social relations in adolescent health inequalities. Design: Cross sectional study. Measures included family social class, indices of social relations to parents, friends,...

Neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage and behavioural problems from late childhood into early adolescence.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: This study investigates whether neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to child behavioural and emotional problems, beyond the effects of parental socioeconomic status. It also examines the influence of...

Occupational level of the father and alcohol consumption during adolescence; patterns and predictors.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: This paper describes and attempts to explain the association between occupational level of the father and high alcohol consumption among a cohort of New Zealand adolescents from age 11 to 21. Design: Data were obtained from...

Income and health behaviours. Evidence from monitoring surveys among Finnish adults.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To examine the associations of individual and household income with various health behaviours, before and after adjusting for educational attainment and occupational social class. Design and Setting: Data from 19 982...

Effects of income and wealth on GHQ depression and poor self rated health in white collar women and men in the Whitehall II study.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To determine whether measures of income and wealth are associated with poor self rated health and GHQ depression. Design: Whitehall II study of London based civil servants re-interviewed between 1997-1999; 7162...

Association between childhood community safety interventions and hospital injury records: a multilevel study.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To study municipal variations in children's injury risk and to assess the impact of safety promotion measures in general municipal, preschool, school, and leisure activity settings, on injury outcome. Design: A cohort...

Association of markers of systemic inflammation, C reactive protein, serum amyloid A, and fibrinogen, with socioeconomic status.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: Systemic inflammation may play an important part in the development of cardiovascular disease. It has also been shown that socioeconomic status predicts cardiovascular events independently of established risk factors. The aim...

Epidemiology of hypertension and associated cardiovascular risk factors a country transition: a population based survey in Tirana City, Albania.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To describe the prevalence of hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors on the adult population of Tirana City (Albania). Design: Cross sectional survey. Setting: Tirana City in mid-2001. Participants:...

Incidence and costs of unintentional falls in older people in the United Kingdom.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: To estimate the number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances, admissions to hospital, and the associated costs as a result of unintentional falls in older people. Design: Analysis of national databases for cost of...

Cumulative social class and mortality from various causes of adult men.(Research Report)
September 1, 2003... Study objective: It is possible that circumstances over the lifecourse contribute to social inequalities in mortality in adulthood. The aim of this study is to assess the cumulative effect of social class at childhood and adulthood on mortality...

Primary open angle glaucoma. The need for a consensus case definition.(Theory And Methods)
September 1, 2003... Primary open angle glaucoma is an important cause of visual impairment and blindness in the United Kingdom. This paper gives a brief overview of the condition and its management. It presents evidence of the continued absence of a consensus case...

A master of public health must be the minimum prerequisite for a health minister: a timely proposal to discuss the necessary qualifications of the ideal health minister.(Letter)
September 1, 2003... Ten editorials described the ideal minister of health (MoH). (1-10) The next step is to find out how to choose him/her. "Ethics is important. Trade is more important", said a MoH during a European Union meeting on tobacco advertisement. One...

A dictionary of public health.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... J Kishore. (Pp 625; $30.00). Century Publications, New Delhi, 2002. ISBN 81-88132-05-5 "This is a comprehensive collection, compilation, interpretation, and definition of public health vocabulary. It encompasses various disciplines and...

Correction.
September 1, 2003... An error ocurred in this article by Calafell and Malats (2003;57:398-400). On page 399 in the section "Missense mutation" the first sentence should have read ATG GTG CAC CTG ACT to ATG GTG CAC GTG ACT ATG [not GTG CAC CTG ACT to ATG GTG CAC GTG...

Bigger is better but medium is ok too.(Hygieia)(breast screening)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... There is a clear need to bolster public confidence in breast screening programmes after recent (media sensationalised) errors and the most transparent way of doing this is to identify problems in the process and eliminate them, therefore...

Inconsistency city.(Hygieia)(congenital abnormalities)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Glasgow, UK, experienced an overall downward trend in the prevalence of congenital anomalies between 1980 and 1997. This pattern was inconsistent however, as there was a significant increase in chromosomal anomalies generally and Down's...

Mortality in non-diabetic female cataract sufferers.(Hygieia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Cataract, already associated with increased mortality in diabetes patients, has now been linked for the first time to higher mortality in non-diabetic people--but only in women. As a cause of visual impairment in the elderly population,...

Paediatric tuberculosis on the rise in London.(Hygieia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The incidence of paediatric tuberculosis (TB) in London, UK, increased by 130% between 1988 and 1998 and is showing no signs of stopping. (Arch Dis Child 2002;86:264-5). Data were taken from two main sources: notifications of TB to the...