Biomedical subjects

I Langford

Publications and source records attributed to I Langford.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Tuberculosis mortality in England and Wales during 1982-1992: its association with poverty, ethnicity and AIDS.

This paper seeks to establish the strength of association between contemporary tuberculosis (TB) in England and Wales and several potential aetiological factors. It presents an ecological analysis of standardised annual TB mortality rates for the 403 local authority districts between 1982 and 1992, disaggregated by age and sex. Social, demographic and ethnicity measures from the 1981 and 1991 censuses and standardised annual AIDS-related mortality rates for young men are used to calculate Poisson regression models. A strong association was found between all TB mortality groups and overcrowding at the household level. For women, no other measures improved the explanatory power of the models. In multiple regressions, both poverty and AIDS-related mortality explained additional variation in the model for younger men. The link between ethnicity and tuberculosis notifications was not reflected in this analysis of mortality. For all groups no evidence of a positive relationship with ethnicity was found, once overcrowding had been accounted for. The significance of household as opposed to district level crowding suggests that prolonged contact is required for disease transmission. Regression analysis indicates that it is the overcrowding and poverty among ethnic populations that is significant for their tuberculosis mortality. The fact that the relationship between AIDS and TB is confined to the group most typical of AIDS patients provides evidence that AIDS has little influence on the level of tuberculosis mortality in the wider population. Explanations for the observed relationship include preferential certification, migration for treatment and shortcomings in health care provision.

England↗

PubMed1997

Exploring the "psychometric paradigm": comparisons between aggregate and individual analyses.

The "psychometric paradigm" developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein was a landmark in research about public attitudes toward risks. One problem with work, however, was that (at least initially) it did not attempt to distinguish between individuals or groups of people, except "experts" vs. "lay people." This paradigm produced a "cognitive map" of hazards, and the assumption seemed to be that the characteristics identified were inherent attributes of risk. This paper examines the validity of this assumption. A questionnaire survey similar to those designed by Slovic et al. was conducted, but the data were analyzed at both the aggregate level, using mean scores, and at the level of individuals (N = 131 Norwich residents). The results reported here demonstrate that (1) individuals vary in their perception of the same risk issue; (2) individuals vary in their rating of the same risks characteristics on the same risk issue; and (3) some of the strong intercorrelations observed between risk characteristics at the aggregate level are not supported when the same data are analysed at the level of individuals. Despite these findings, the relationship between risk characteristics and risk perceptions inferred by the psychometric paradigm did hold true at the level of individuals, for most--but not all--of the characteristics. In particular, the relationship between "lack of knowledge to those exposed" and risk perceptions appears to be a complex one, a finding which has important implications for risk communication strategies.

Communication↗

PubMed1991

Childhood leukaemia mortality and population change in England and Wales 1969-73.

Recent evidence from new towns in Great Britain suggests that childhood leukaemia mortality is associated with rapid population growth. It has been proposed that this may reflect patterns of population mixing and exposure to infectious diseases which may predispose to the development of leukaemia in children. This study examines childhood leukaemia mortality for 1365 local authority areas of England and Wales for the period 1969 to 1973 with reference to population change between 1961 and 1971. A significantly increased risk of childhood leukaemia mortality was found for 0-14 year olds in areas which experienced more than a 50% increase in population over the decade (R. R. 1.408, 95% C. I. 1.126-1.761). A cumulative sum analysis shows a threshold at approximately 50% population growth rather than a continuous relationship. A map of the data suggests that areas of significantly raised mortality compared to the national average are concentrated in and around the major conurbations of the area studied.

Adolescent↗