Converting EpiAnalysis for new media

As part of ongoing efforts to support MOOCs (massive open online courses), we’re closing our traditional EpiAnalysis blog and converting to a new, evolving epidemiology virtual course. While our older posts will remain available on this website, our newer effort will allow us to more flexibly discuss ongoing epidemiology controversies, new research and data, and analytical approaches. Stay tuned…

Industry ties to medical expert panels

Controversy has surrounded the latest publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of mental health disorders, in part because of concerns that the guideline pathologizes many behaviors that some people might consider normal, theoretically increasing the opportunity to prescribe pharmaceuticals for non-pathological behavior. But beyond the field of psychiatry, there are increasing concerns that “medicalization” may be doing more harm than good for patients (especially where tests and therapies have marginal benefit but potentially great risks), and may be influenced by profit motives and desires to define disease so expansively as to intrude on normal living to a stifling degree. A recent comprehensive study of medical panels’ decisions about expanding disease definitions shed some light on this debate, and revealed some concerning findings…

The Stanford Health 4 America Fellows Program

We know health starts—long before illness—in our homes, communities, schools and jobs. But we devote most attention to medications and healthcare delivery. The Stanford Prevention Research Center is announcing the start of a new “Health 4 America” fellows program, whose goal is to train prevention experts to address health in  families, neighborhoods, schools, communities and the workplace…

The Disabled States of America: regional disparities in healthy life expectancy

The CDC recently released their latest data on healthy life expectancy across the US. The data reveal stark inequalities not only in overall death rates, but moreover in how extremely disabled various parts of the country are as compared to healthier areas.

 

Bending the child obesity curve

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has released a fascinating glimpse into data suggesting that childhood obesity may be declining in several US cities and counties.

Tobacco control and chronic disease in rapidly-developing countries

Today’s PLoS Medicine includes our recent study attempting to answer a simple question: given the rise in many chronic disease risk factors (high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc.) in rapidly-developing countries like India and China, which interventions might avert the most deaths from cardiovascular disease?

The data beneath The Farm Bill

Numerous commentaries have debated aspects of the $100 billion dollar U.S. Farm Bill—the legislation that funds farm subsidies, food stamps, crop insurance policies, and potentially some international food aid as well. But what’s the impact of these various programs? We took a look at the data on Farm Bill payments and effects over the last several years…

The impact of food price spikes

As we discussed in a previous post, several causes led to a massive spike in food prices internationally in 2008 and again a few years later. The average world price of rice, for example, rose by 217% between 2006 and 2008. Classical theories have suggested that we shouldn’t worry about these spikes: that the high prices will lead to more production (attracting farmers to produce more, which will drive prices back down), people’s wages will adjust to costs of living, and people will be able to substitute for expensive items with other foods. But a new report tracking how the most-affected people have responded to the food spikes reveals that classical theories may be a bit out of touch…

Introducing The Body Economic

Politicians have talked endlessly about deficits and finance during our ongoing economic crisis. But we’ve talked far less about achieving another major goal that is just as important, if not more so, than promoting stable financial markets: protecting our health and well-being during hard times and into the future. What policies are most effective in preserving our health during economic recessions—and can we afford them?

That question, it turns out, can be answered through data and careful research on recessions both past and present. My colleague David Stuckler and I are today releasing our peer-reviewed book, entitled The Body Economic, in which we boil down over a century of data from across the globe to answer the question of what policies actually improve both our economies and our public health during and after economic recessions.

Big data mining and new hypotheses in mental health research

This is a guest post by the computational epidemiologist Dr. John Ayers:

Most of us are aware of the “big data” revolution fueled by electronic information. It has been suggested that big data, along with hypothesis-free methods popularized by films such as Moneyball, will allow for an unprecedented growth of knowledge across disciplines, including epidemiology and preventive medicine. While I am a bit more circumspect in expectations (there is no substitute for survey data in many cases), I do believe that electronic data collected for a fraction of the cost of survey data can work hand-in-hand with research derived from more traditional sources.