Epidemiologic Studies

This presentation is part of the Social Values in Medical Research track. Due to higher than national average breast cancer rates and deaths on Long Island the U.S. Congress in 1993 ordered a study of breast cancer on the island. The Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project (LIBCSP), federally funded under Public Law 103-43, conducted by the National Cancer Institute

Low back pain (LBP) in children and adolescents was considered for many years to be rare and an indication of serious disease [1]. In the last two decades, epidemi-ological studies have shown that the prevalence of ... Ismail Bejia Nabiha Abid Kamel Ben Salem Mondher Letaief ...

A total of 129 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis representing 91 patients were typed by a combination of direct-repeat (DR)-based spoligotyping and an inter-IS6110-PGRS (polymorphic GC-rich region)-PCR, also designated double-repetitive-element PCR (DRE-PCR). During the first phase of this investigation, 72 clinical strains representing 52 patients were initially typed by IS6110-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and DR-RFLP, followed by spoligotyping and DRE-PCR. In the second phase of this investigation, the discriminating ability of spoligotyping plus DRE-PCR was studied for 57 isolates from 39 patients who were suspected to be epidemiologically linked, and the typing results were later confirmed by IS6110-RFLP and DR-RFLP analyses. The molecular clustering of the isolates remained identical irrespective of the methods used. These results show that the association of two PCR-based fingerprinting techniques for molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis has ...

We employed multilevel structural equation modeling with data collected during telephone interviews with 1,156 parents of sixth graders from 36 rural schools to examine the relationships of family sociodemographic factors, parents' perceptions of their child's susceptibility to future substance use involvement, parents' perceptions of their ability to prevent such problems, and the perceived benefits of family-skills programs designed to prevent adolescent problems. Family-level findings suggested that parent gender and marital status were particularly salient; each exhibited direct effects on each of the three parent perceptions examined. Findings supported the hypotheses that parental efficacy perceptions inversely affect perceptions of child susceptibility and that perceptions of child susceptibility positively affect perceived program benefits. At the community level, lower household incomes were associated with higher levels of perceived child susceptibility to substance use.

Abstract
Aim  To test whether alcohol is a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Design and setting  US epidemiological study using computerized death certificates, linked birth and infant death dataset, and Fatality Analysis Reporting System.
Participants  All SIDS cases (n = 129,090) and other infant deaths (n = 295,151) from 1973–2006; all persons involved in late‐night alcohol‐related crashes (n = 135,946) from 1994–2008.
Measurements  Three measures were used: the expected number of deaths on New Year versus the observed number (expected values were determined using a locally weighted scatterplot smoothing polynomial), the average number of weekend deaths versus the average number of weekday deaths, and the SIDS death rate for children of alcohol‐consuming versus non‐alcohol‐consuming mothers.
Findings  These measures indicate that the largest spikes in alcohol consumption and in SIDS (33%) occur on New Year, alcohol consumption and SIDS increase significantly on weekends, and children of alcohol‐consuming mothers are much more likely to die from SIDS than are children of non‐alcohol‐consuming mothers.
Conclusions  Alcohol consumption appears to be a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome, although it is unclear whether alcohol is an independent risk factor, a risk factor only in conjunction with other known risk factors (like co‐sleeping), or a proxy for other risk factors associated with occasions when alcohol consumption increases (like smoking). Our findings suggest that caretakers and authorities should be informed that alcohol impairs parental capacity and might be a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome; in addition, future research should further explore possible connections between sudden infant death syndrome and alcohol.

Vários estudos epidemiológicos avaliaram a associação entre saúde bucal e desenvolvimento social. Entretanto, o uso de diferentes variáveis mensurando condição sócio-econômica dificulta a análise comparativa de seus achados. O presente estudo descreveu as formas mais usadas por estudos recentes de saúde bucal para a classificação de segmentos de população segundo categorias de estratificação social. Foram selecionados 86 artigos publicados em periódicos indexados no MEDLINE, entre 1990 e 2001. Embora esses estudos tenham empregado diferentes estratégias para estratificar a população, ocupação, escolaridade e renda, foram as variáveis mais freqüentemente utilizadas. Diferenciais étnicos, características dos domicílios e das escolas e acesso a bens materiais também foram usadas com freqüência. Foi também observada grande participação de estudos brasileiros sobre diferenciais sócio-econômicos na distribuição de cáries e doença periodontal. O conhecimento das estratégias para a estratif...