Burden of Disease: Environmental Inequalities

A report on Environmental Inequalities in the UK. Part of the Burden of disease. A clean and healthy environment is a vital component of public health. This is particularly so for children. They are more sensitive to most stressors during development and growth and receive relatively more exposure than adults due to behaviour patterns, lack of awareness, size and biological metabolisms.A study of the contribution of environmental pollutants to the incidence, prevalence, mortality and costs of four categories of paediatric disease in American children estimated total annual costs to be $54.9 billion comprising $43.4 billion for lead poisoning, $2.0 billion for asthma, $0.3 billion for childhood cancer, and $9.2 billion for neurobehavioral disorders; 2.8 % of total U.S. health care costs. As well as childhood conditions, some adult diseases, even those that emerge much later in life, e.g. hypertension, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, breast cancer and prostate cancer have some of their origins in utero and childhood. Childhood exposures to environmental health hazards may therefore constitute a source of inequity between generations .

Telephone Survey of Infectious Intestinal Disease in the Republic of Ireland

Infectious intestinal disease is a disease of the digestive system caused by infectious agents. Most infectious intestinal disease (IID) is self-limiting, requiring no clinical intervention, but it causes a substantial burden to the population through healthcare usage and absenteeism. Understanding the magnitude, distribution and demographic factors associated with IID is key to its mitigation. The cases and outbreaks of human disease detected via surveillance represent but a small proportion of the true burden of disease in the population, and special studies are needed periodically in order to be able to extrapolate true population experience from what is reported via surveillance. One way to identify the true extent of IID is to estimate illness in the community, and not just at the point where the individual has made contact with the health services.

The Lourdes Hospital Inquiry: An Inquiry into peripartum hysterectomy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda

Report Of Judge Maureen Harding Clark S.C., This non-statutory private Inquiry was established by a decision of the Government on the 6th of April 2004. Read the Report

Adult consequences of late adolescent alcohol consumption: a systematic review of cohort studies.

Alcohol is responsible for a significant portion of the global burden of disease. There is widespread concern reported in the media and other sources about drinking trends among young people, particularly heavy episodic or “binge” drinking. Prominent among policy responses, in the UK and elsewhere, have been attempts to manage antisocial behaviour related to intoxication in public spaces. Much less attention has been given to the longer term effects of excessive drinking in adolescence on later adult health and well-being. Some studies suggest that individuals “mature out” of late adolescent drinking behaviour, whilst others identify enduring effects on drinking and broader health and social outcomes in adulthood. If adolescent drinking does not cause later difficulties in adulthood then intervention approaches aimed at addressing the acute consequences of alcohol, such as unintentional injuries and anti-social behaviour, may be the most appropriate solution. If causal relationships do exist, however, this approach will not address the cumulative harms produced by alcohol, unless such intervention successfully modifies the long-term relationship with alcohol, which seems unlikely. To address this issue a systematic review of cohort studies was conducted, as this approach provides the strongest observational study design to evaluate evidence for causal inference.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Global burden of dementia in the year 2050: summary of methods and data sources

��The number of people suffering dementia will triple in the next 40 years, according to a new study by the World Health Organization, leading to catastrophic social and financial costs. Dementia, a brain illness that affects memory, behavior and the ability to perform even common tasks, affects mostly older people; Alzheimer's causes many cases. Read the report:Global burden of dementia in the year 2050: summary of methods and data sources

Cancer inequalities in the South East region: The burden of cancer

This is the first in a planned series of reports on the subject of cancer inequalities in the South East region. This report focuses on inequalities in cancer incidence, mortality and survival for the four most common cancers (lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer) across the South East region in relation to deprivation and geographical distribution. The report is aimed at Cancer Networks and Primary Care Trusts and is intended to inform the debate about priorities for reducing inequalities in the cancer burden and in outcomes for cancer patients in local communities in the South East region.

Health Protection Inequalities on the island of Ireland: An introductory paper

Public health services in Ireland, North and South, are committed to addressing inequalities in health on the island of Ireland. This report, prepared by Dr Lorraine Doherty, Assistant Director of Public Health (Health Protection), Public Health Agency NI for the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH), specifically highlights health inequalities in relation to infectious diseases and other areas of health protection such as chemical hazards and environmental disruption. Infectious diseases disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in society. These vulnerable groups bear the highest burden of disease in relation to infectious diseases. The report also highlights the impact of climate change on health protection and the impacts for water, food and vector borne diseases. The aim of this report is to enable a programme of work to begin to document health protection inequalities and develop action plans for addressing them on an all island basis.

Hospital admission counts and rates for injuries in Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales

Number of hospital discharges and age-standardised discharge rates for emergency hospital admissions for injury by sex and type of injury for the following regions and year:Republic of Ireland 2006Northern Ireland 2006England 2006/07Scotland 2006/07Wales 2006 Numbers and rates are based on official hospital statistics from each region. All regions use International Classification of Disease (ICD) version 10 for hospital discharges in these years. Only emergency inpatient hospital spells with an ICD 10 code in the range S000-T739, T750-T759, T780-T789 (in any diagnostic position) and an ICD10 external cause code in the range V01-Y36 (in any diagnostic position) were included. A hospital spell is an unbroken period of time that a person spends as an inpatient in a hospital. The person may change consultant and/or specialty during a spell but is counted only once. See http://www.injuryobservatory.net/analysis-of-inpatient-admissions-data-f... for more details.