G.6. Workshop: Effective public health action - examples from childhood injury prevention

The aim of this chapter is to help you to measure your progress towards creative and sustainable public health practice. It is intended to address the absence of criteria and standards against which to audit much of the wide spectrum of public health work and to help you improve your delivery of public health when faced with this absence.

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Statistical methods for body mass index: A selective review

Statistical Methods in Medical Research ◽

10.1177/0962280216643117 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 798-811 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Keming Yu ◽

Xi Liu ◽

Rahim Alhamzawi ◽

Frauke Becker ◽

Joanne Lord

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Body Mass Index ◽

Statistical Methods ◽

Body Mass ◽

Health Care Systems ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Health Action ◽

Care Systems ◽

Statistical Library ◽

Effective Public Health

Obesity rates have been increasing over recent decades, causing significant concern among policy makers. Excess body fat, commonly measured by body mass index, is a major risk factor for several common disorders including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, placing a substantial burden on health care systems. To guide effective public health action, we need to understand the complex system of intercorrelated influences on body mass index. This paper, based on all eligible articles searched from Global health, Medline and Web of Science databases, reviews both classical and modern statistical methods for body mass index analysis. We give a description of each of these methods, exploring the classification, links and differences between them and the reasons for choosing one over the others in different settings. We aim to provide a key resource and statistical library for researchers in public health and medicine to deal with obesity and body mass index data analysis.

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Identifying SARS-CoV-2 regional introductions and transmission clusters in real time

10.1101/2022.01.07.22268918 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Jakob McBroome ◽

Jennifer Martin ◽

Adriano de Bernardi Schneider ◽

Yatish Turakhia ◽

Russell Corbett-Detig

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Computational Models ◽

Simulated Data ◽

The United States ◽

Data Exploration ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Web Based ◽

Geographic Origins ◽

Health Action ◽

Effective Public Health

The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 global sequencing effort has suffered from an analytical bottleneck. Many existing methods for phylogenetic analysis are designed for sparse, static datasets and are too computationally expensive to apply to densely sampled, rapidly expanding datasets when results are needed immediately to inform public health action. For example, public health is often concerned with identifying clusters of closely related samples, but the sheer scale of the data prevents manual inspection and the current computational models are often too expensive in time and resources. Even when results are available, intuitive data exploration tools are of critical importance to effective public health interpretation and action. To help address this need, we present a phylogenetic summary statistic which quickly and efficiently identifies newly introduced strains in a region, resulting clusters of infected individuals, and their putative geographic origins. We show that this approach performs well on simulated data and is congruent with a more sophisticated analysis performed during the pandemic. We also introduce Cluster Tracker (https://clustertracker.gi.ucsc.edu/), a novel interactive web-based tool to facilitate effective and intuitive SARS-CoV-2 geographic data exploration and visualization. Cluster-Tracker is updated daily and automatically identifies and highlights groups of closely related SARS-CoV-2 infections resulting from inter-regional transmission across the United States, streamlining public health tracking of local viral diversity and emerging infection clusters. The combination of these open-source tools will empower detailed investigations of the geographic origins and spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other densely-sampled pathogens.

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Der „Public Health Action Cycle“ als Basis für eine datengestützte Arbeit im Kinder- und Jugend-Gesundheitsdienst

10.1055/s-0039-1679327 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

C Korebrits

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Public Health Action Cycle ◽

Health Action

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Estimating the number of cases during COVID-19 pandemics using a web-based tool: first week results of “COVID-19 TRENDS” social media project in the Araba-Alava province in Basque country, Spain. (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.20885 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ignacio Garitano ◽

Manuel Linares ◽

Laura Santos ◽

Ruth Gil ◽

Elena Lapuente ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Response Rate ◽

Basque Country ◽

Case Definition ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Web Based ◽

Health Action ◽

Estimate Number ◽

Media Project

UNSTRUCTURED On 28th February a case of COVID-19 was declared in Araba-Álava province, Spain. In Spain, a confinement and movement restrictions were established by Spanish Government at 14th March 2020. We implemented a web-based tool to estimate number of cases during the pandemic. We present the results in Áraba-Álava province. We reached a response rate of 10,3% out a 331.549 population. We found that 22,4 % fulfilled the case definition. This tool rendered useful to inform public health action.

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Reconciling Epidemiology’s Aspirations and Capabilities

American Journal of Epidemiology ◽

10.1093/aje/kwaa271 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David A Savitz

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Epidemiologic Studies ◽

Public Health Importance ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Action Current ◽

Current Trends ◽

The Face ◽

Health Action ◽

New Challenges ◽

Health Applications

Abstract Interpreting the results of epidemiologic studies calls for objectivity and rigorous scrutiny, acknowledging the limitations that temper the applicability of the findings to public health action. Current trends have posed new challenges to balancing goal of scientific objectivity and validity with public health applications. The ongoing tension between epidemiology’s aspirations and capability has several sources: the need to overpromise in research proposals, compromising methodologic rigor because of public health importance, defending findings in the face of hostile critics, and appealing to core constituencies who have specific expectations from the research.

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Risk factors, symptom reporting, healthcare-seeking behaviour and adherence to public health guidance: protocol for Virus Watch, a prospective community cohort study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. e048042

Author(s):

Andrew Hayward ◽

Ellen Fragaszy ◽

Jana Kovar ◽

Vincent Nguyen ◽

Sarah Beale ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Cohort Study ◽

Online Survey ◽

Respiratory Infections ◽

Advisory Group ◽

Antibody Testing ◽

Public Health Action ◽

Nasal Swabs ◽

Health Action ◽

Minority Ethnic

IntroductionThe coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant global mortality and impacted lives around the world. Virus Watch aims to provide evidence on which public health approaches are most likely to be effective in reducing transmission and impact of the virus, and will investigate community incidence, symptom profiles and transmission of COVID-19 in relation to population movement and behaviours.Methods and analysisVirus Watch is a household community cohort study of acute respiratory infections in England and Wales and will run from June 2020 to August 2021. The study aims to recruit 50 000 people, including 12 500 from minority ethnic backgrounds, for an online survey cohort and monthly antibody testing using home fingerprick test kits. Nested within this larger study will be a subcohort of 10 000 individuals, including 3000 people from minority ethnic backgrounds. This cohort of 10 000 people will have full blood serology taken between October 2020 and January 2021 and repeat serology between May 2021 and August 2021. Participants will also post self-administered nasal swabs for PCR assays of SARS-CoV-2 and will follow one of three different PCR testing schedules based on symptoms.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Hampstead National Health Service (NHS) Health Research Authority Ethics Committee (ethics approval number 20/HRA/2320). We are monitoring participant queries and using these to refine methodology where necessary, and are providing summaries and policy briefings of our preliminary findings to inform public health action by working through our partnerships with our study advisory group, Public Health England, NHS and government scientific advisory panels.

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