Invited commentary: Paths and pathologies of social epidemiology.

Invited Commentary Invited Commentary: Toward a More Comprehensive Social Epidemiology of Marital Trajectories and Mortality

In this issue of the Journal, Dupre et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2009;170(5):546–555) use data from a nationally representative cohort of older US adults to examine the association of current marital status, timing of first marriage, number and kind of transitions out of marriage, and durations spent in various marital statuses with the risk of all-cause mortality. Their study offers a wealth of emp...

Invited Commentary Invited Commentary: Topical Threats to Epidemiology

Epidemiologic studies are subject to social and cultural influences, which can influence the way samples are identified or included and information is collected. In this commentary, the author highlights issues related to several factors that may influence current research methods, such as changes in telephone use and new ethical guidelines. Technologic developments that have the potential to p...

Invited commentary: social mechanisms, race, and social epidemiology.

In the leading article in this issue of the Journal, Kaufman and Cooper (1) attempt to elucidate why social epidemiology has allegedly failed to provide explanations for the associations between social factors and disease. Their main argument is that the assumptions of counterfactual models routinely used in observational studies are not adequate for testing social factors. The authors illustra...

Invited commentary: screening as a nuisance variable in cancer epidemiology: methodological considerations.

A large literature has developed over the last two decades around methods for evaluating the effects and benefits of screening procedures for cancer. In contrast, the role of screening for cancer as a nuisance variable is one that has as yet received little attention. This is unfortunate, because, as Noel Weiss points out in the lead commentary in this issue of the Journal (1), screening proced...

Invited commentary: pertussis, a forgotten killer.