Group items tagged

Why data resource profiles (DRPs)? We can't do epidemiology without data. Data are cen- tral to epidemiology's three main challenges: to describe health states in populations, make inferences about their causes and to apply that knowledge to improve health. The more high quality data we have to support these three tasks, the better.10,11 The challenge of providing health data coverage on a global scale is immense. Termed a 'scandal of invisi- bility', in the world's least developed countries more than two-thirds of all births and deaths go unregis- tered.12 Meanwhile, in advanced industrialised na- tions publicly funded data collection systems are under threat, particularly at a time of state retrench- ment.13 In the UK and Canada the long-form census was cancelled. Canada, too, cancelled some of its premier longitudinal studies of children and youth, leaving the country with little signal about the state of human capability development of its future gener- ations. Removing parts of the publicly funded health information infrastructure is easy, but rebuilding sur- veillance will require orders of magnitude more vision, dedication and money.

Social media represents a new frontier in disease surveillance. Infoveillance allows for the real-time retrieval of internet data. Our objective was to systematically review the literature utilizing social media as a source for disease prediction and surveillance. A review of English-language conference proceedings and journal articles from 1999 to 2011 using EMBASE and PubMed was conducted. A total of 12 full-text articles were included. Results of these studies show the use of open-source micro-blogging sites to inform influenza-like-illness monitoring. These results inform recommendations for future research directions.

"The study used powerful statistical tools to test five hypotheses about the link between mental illness and poverty, including the ''downward drift" idea. The theory that stressful economic conditions bring on mental illness was the only one that really fit the data"

"stimulating a movement in which communities are convening stakeholders across sectors to pursue shared goals and collect data to track progress.23 Clinicians and health care systems find it unrealistic and overwhelming to tackle complex social problems, but they are not alone. Teachers, police officers, parents, employers, and many others also feel powerless to solve social problems without partners. Meaningful change requires broader thinking than what Chetty et al recommend: "changing health behaviors among low-income individuals." As the history of tobacco control teaches, multilevel interventions across the socioecological framework-from legislation to marketing-are essential to advance population health. A culture of collaboration across sectors provides a venue for medicine and public health to join forces with business leaders, school systems, the park authority, investors, retailers, the media, and community groups. Each sector can bring their respective skills to the task, together accomplishing more by leveraging resources and talent than any sector could achieve alone. A medical journal article reporting that income is significantly associated with life expectancy is a call to arms, but the answer cannot come from medicine or public health alone but from the health professions working with partners who share an interest in prosperity and good health. Finding common causes, bridging silos, and leveraging talents hold the promise of much deeper influence and benefit than yesterday's fragmented efforts could achieve."

"Using the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health data, we find a statistically and economically significant effect of neighborhood parks and playgrounds on childhood obesity based on covariate matching estimators. The park/playground effect depends on gender, age, race, household income, neighborhood safety, and other neighborhood amenities. The results suggest that adding a neighborhood park/playground may reduce the obesity rate and make children more fit, but relevant interventions must consider socioeconomic status of the targeted children as well as other neighborhood amenities."