From the New York Times.
One one question today: How would you evaluate an intervention to improve vaccine confidence?
LSHTM's Prof Heidi Larson & vaccine confidence
by | Sujit Rathod -
Epi in the News
Epi in the News!
Welcome to Epi in the News!
In this forum, I will post news articles of interest to epidemiologists and epidemiology students.
With
the article, I'll pose a few questions for your consideration. Sometime I'll pose a question knowing that there isn't a 'right' answer. Sometimes I'll ask questions so that you can pull together your learnings
from across different modules, sort of like what you'll have to do in
your MSc final exam.
Epi is the News is purely for your enrichment and
entertainment purposes. In most cases I'm not necessarily endorsing the study in
question, and more likely will be asking you to critique it. I leave it to you and your classmates to provide the answers.
Enjoy!
Sujit Rathod, MSc Epidemiology Content Director
HPV Vaccine
by | Sujit Rathod -
From The Guardian
"The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine,
showed that of nearly 1.7 million girls and women, those who had been
vaccinated before the age of 17 had their risk of developing cervical
cancer reduced by 88%, while the risk for those vaccinated between the
ages of 17 and 30 dropped by 53%."
1. What are the relative risk figures which led the journalist to report reductions by 88% and 53%?
2. There's an important epidemiologic detail missing from the statement above. What is it? (Apologies for being vague!)
3.
Comment on the choice of outcome (endpoint). How is this an improvement
over previous studies? Can you propose something even better?
Discuss this topic
(4 replies so far)
Maternal health for Black women
by | Sujit Rathod -
1. "In the UK, Black women are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women."
How did the investigators calculate this number? What is the epi label you would use for this number?
2. "Black women are more likely to have conditions that can put them at greater risk, including cardiac disease, diabetes and high blood pressure,"
What epidemiologic concept is implied here? Explain why the investigators decided to consider these measures.
3. "...when Black and Asian women do not have pre-existing medical conditions, have English as their first language and come from middle-class backgrounds, they still have worse outcomes compared with white women from a similar background.."
Why did the investigators do this comparison, as opposed to a comparison with the wider population of Black, Asian and white women?
Discuss this topic
(2 replies so far)
Foetal alcohol disorder
by | Sujit Rathod -
From The Guardian.
1. What study design did the charity use?
2. How might their findings be affected by sampling bias?
3. "Among the adopters surveyed by the charity Adoption
UK, 8% of children had a diagnosis, and a further 17% were suspected by
their parents to have foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)".
Comment on the case definitions. What are in the numerators and denominators for these calculations? How might the findings be affected by measurement bias?
4. Dr Luisa Zuccolo says "There is far too much uncertainty on the actual extent of this problem.."
How would you design a study to reduce the uncertainty?
5. "Nice
[National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] says there is no
known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy."
How would you establish a safe level of consumption?
Discuss this topic
(2 replies so far)
Background Colour
Font Face
Font Size
1
Text Colour