Posted: November 14th, 2016

Maternal cigarette smoking and invasive meningococcal disease: a cohort study among young children in metropolitan Atlanta, 1989- 1996

1. Read the article [Maternal cigarette smoking and invasive meningococcal disease: a cohort study among young children in metropolitan Atlanta, 1989- 1996], and answer the following questions

1. What is the type of the study

2. What was the source from which the study population was identified

3. What were the methods of follow up

4. Did the authors use primary data or secondary data

5. What was the period over which the study was conducted? Was the maximum period of follow up achieved by any of the study subjects

6. What was the main hypothesis being tested

7. What was the outcome of interest

8. Why was the duration of follow up for children who developed meningococcal disease defined as between birth and date of diagnosis of the disease

9. Why were the two cases of meningitis born outside metropolitan Atlanta excluded

10. What information was presented which justifies the authors concentrating on children under 3 years old or younger

11. Which one you prefer the person-year estimate of relative risk or incidence proportion estimate of relative risk and why

12. The case-fatality rate for meningococcal disease is 10 to 15%. Explain this in your own words

13. What index are the authors calling attributable fraction? In your own words, explain what is the meaning of saying in table4, the attributable fraction for all children was 0.26

14. How did the authors define incidence in this study? What is the equivalent definition in your notes, and what modification would you add to their definition to make it accurate.