Epidemiologic research has shown increases in adverse cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes in relation to mass concentrations of particulate matter (PM) < or = 2.5 or < or = 10 microm in diameter (PM2.5, PM10, respectively). In a companion article [Delfino RJ, Sioutas C, Malik S. 2005. Environ Health Perspect 113(8):934-946]), we discuss epidemiologic evidence pointing to underlying componen...

Epidemiology can be considered as a very old science. For example, John Graunt, a statistician, published Natural and Political Observations. In the Bills of Mortality in 1662, he analyzed the mortality rolls in London before the Great Plague, presented one of the first life tables, and reported time trends for many diseases. He provided statist...

I present some extensions of Bayesian methods to situations in which biases are of concern. First, a basic misclassification problem is illustrated using data from a study of sudden infant death syndrome. Bayesian analyses are then given. These analyses can be conducted directly, or by converting actual-data records to incomplete records and prior distributions to complete-data records, then ap...

The foregoing commentaries demonstrate wide differences between their authors’ choice of terms describing epidemiologic research designs, and in the relative importance they attach to directionality, timing, and sample selection. Nowhere is this more evident than in their discrepant definitions of “prospective” and “retrospective” studies. According to Drs Greenland and Morgenstern, “Prospectiv...

We present a systematic review of historical, political, and epidemiologic aspects of AIDS in Brazilian children. Over 25 years, Brazil has developed different strategies to control AIDS in children. Three revisions of criteria for defining AIDS cases in children and nine national guidelines on antiretroviral therapy administration for management of HIV infection were published. These guideline...

background: data on premature coronary artery disease (cad) are scarce. the tehran heart center's premature coronary atherosclerosis cohort study (thc-pac) is the first study of its kind in the middle east to assess major adverse cardiac events (mace) in young cad patients. methods: the cohort consists of cad patients, males ≤ 45 years old and females ≤ 55 years old. the participants are reside...

BACKGROUND Third World countries are confronted by a complex overlay of two sets of health problems. Traditional maladies, including communicable diseases, malnutrition, and environmental health hazards coexist with emerging health challenges, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and increasing levels of obesity. Using Ecuador as an example, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for l...