Statistical power of disease cluster and clustering tests for rare diseases: A simulation study of point sources

Abstract Two recent epidemiological studies on clustering of childhood leukemia showed different results on the statistical power of disease cluster and clustering tests, possibly an effect of spatial data aggregation. Eight different leukemia cluster scenarios were simulated using individual addresses of all 1,009,332 children living in Denmark in 2006. For each scenario, a number of point sources were defined with an increased risk ratio at centroid, decreasing linearly to 1.0 at the edge; aggregation levels were administrative units of Danish municipalities and squares of 5, 12.5 and 25 km 2 . Six statistical methods were compared. Generally, statistical power decreased with increasing s…

An evaluation of exposure metrics in an epidemiologic study on radio and television broadcast transmitters and the risk of childhood leukemia.

Electric field strength values calculated by wave propagation modeling were applied as an exposure metric in a case–control study conducted in Germany to investigate a possible association between radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted from television and radio broadcast transmitters and the risk of childhood leukemia. To validate this approach it was examined at 850 measurement sites whether calculated RF-EMF are an improvement to an exposure proxy based on distance from the place of residence to a transmitter. Further, the agreement between measured and calculated RF-EMF was explored. For dichotomization at the 90% quantiles of the exposure distributions it was found that…

RE: "RADIO-FREQUENCY RADIATION EXPOSURE FROM AM RADIO TRANSMITTERS AND CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA AND BRAIN CANCER"

Mobile phone base stations and adverse health effects: phase 1 of a population-based, cross-sectional study in Germany

Objective: The aim of this first phase of a cross-sectional study from Germany was to investigate whether proximity of residence to mobile phone base stations as well as risk perception is associated with health complaints. Methods: The researchers conducted a population-based, multi-phase, cross-sectional study within the context of a large panel survey regularly carried out by a private research institute in Germany. In the initial phase, reported on in this paper, 30 047 persons from a total of 51 444 who took part in the nationwide survey also answered questions on how mobile phone base stations affected their health. A list of 38 health complaints was used. A multiple linear regression…

Retrospektive Bestimmung der elektromagnetischen Exposition durch analoge Rundfunksender im Rahmen von KiSS

Im Rahmen einer epidemiologischen Fall-Kontroll-Studie zur Untersuchung eines möglichen Zusammenhangs zwischen der Häufigkeit kindlicher Leukämien und elektromagnetischer Strahlung (,,KiSS" – <b>Ki</b>ndliche Leukämien und Expositionen in der Umgebung von hochfrequenten <b>S</b>ende<b>s</b>tationen) soll die Exposition durch leistungsstarke analoge Rundfunksender retrospektiv (Zeitraum 1982–2003) quantifiziert werden. Die zu betrachtenden Sendernetze für AM-Hörfunk, FM-Hörfunk und analoges Fernsehen unterscheiden sich nicht nur hinsichtlich der Modulationsart und der von den Einzelsendern abgestrahlten Leistung, sondern auch in de…

Kindliche Leukämien und EMF-Expositionen in der Umgebung hochfrequenter Sendestationen (KiSS) – Fragestellung und Studienbeschreibung

Abstract. Im Rahmen einer Fall-Kontroll-Studie wird untersucht, ob es einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Leukämierisiko bei Kindern und der Exposition gegenüber elektromagnetischen Feldern in der Umgebung leistungsstarker Sendestationen von Rundfunk und Fernsehen gibt. Bislang wurden fünf Studien im Umkreis von Rundfunksendeanlagen durchgeführt. Deren Aussagekraft ist jedoch durch eine grobe Expositionsabschätzung und ihren ökologischen Studienansatz ohne individuelle Expositionsbestimmung limitiert. Wesentliches Element der hier vorgestellten Studie ist dagegen eine individuelle Expositionsabschätzung, die zum einen auf der Geocodierung von Wohnadressen und Expositionspunktquellen und zum and…