Research on child maltreatment epidemiology has primarily been focused on population surveys with adult respondents. Far less attention has been paid to analyzing reported incidents of alleged child maltreatment and corresponding agency responses. This type of research is however indispensable to know how well a child protection system works and if the most vulnerable are identified and served....

National population surveys are essential to learn the health profile, the distribution of risk factors and their tendencies, as well as health inequalities. The information collected periodically allow the monitoring of actions and programs and of health in different population subgroups and subsidize the planning and management of collective health interventions1-3. Recently, Brazil has stood...

We describe the synthesis of detailed social contact networks of Delhi, India, and Los Angeles, USA, for urban-scale epidemiological simulations. The network synthesis is done by combining information from multiple data sources, since social contact information cannot be obtained through direct surveys. We compare the two networks on various structural and dynamical metrics. Through the compari...

Epidemiological surveys will be biased if subgroups of patients are over-represented among non-responders. Severe urinary incontinence may be associated with debilitating morbidity which renders cooperation impossible. Under such circumstances even a response rate of 90% may be too low to ensure valid prevalence estimates.' To elucidate this problem we conducted a survey among incontinent women...

Similar to that which occurred in most developed countries, dental caries have shown a significant decline in Brazil over the last two decades. Water fluoridation, expansion of preventive programs at schools, and especially, the widespread use of fluoride dentifrice are discussed as factors related to this reduction in caries. Data from epidemiological surveys and historical facts are presented...

The diagnosis of human cutaneous leishmaniasis in small towns is sometimes made without the species identification of the Leishmania, even in areas without previous epidemiological surveys. Here we report the isolation of a Leishmania strain from a patient of Rincão, state of São Paulo, that was identified by isoenzyme characterization as L. (Viannia) braziliensis. Sand fly collections were mad...

We examined the relationship between neighborhood structural characteristics and mental disorder using data from the National Institute of Mental Health's Epidemiological Catchment (ECA) surveys (n = 11,686). After controlling for individual-level characteristics, we found that neighborhood disadvantage was associated with higher rates of major depression and substance abuse disorder, and that ...

The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS) is a multi-component epidemiological and neurobiological study designed to generate actionable recommendations to reduce US Army suicides and increase knowledge about determinants of suicidality. Three Army STARRS component studies are large-scale surveys: one of new soldiers prior to beginning Basic Combat Training (B...