Types of Illness | Wet Areas Population Illness % |
Dry Areas Population Illness % |
O/E Ratio | ||
Birth defects | 120 births | 24 (20%) | 176 births | 12 (12%) | (2.9%) |
Nervous breakdowns | 149 adults | 13 (7.0%) | 510 adults | 7 (1.4%) | (6.2%) |
Urinary disease | 314 total | 22 (7.0%) | 826 total | 21 (2.5%) | (2.0%) |
Asthma | 314 total | 14 (4.5%) | 826 total | 11 (1.3%) | (3.5%) |
Hyperactivity | 127 children | 11 (8.7%) | 316 children | 2 (0.6%) | (14.5%) |
Have a good look at the table above. How do you interpret these data? What features of the data and of the way they are assembled affect your interpretation? Consider:
As far as subject selection is concerned, we have no information on nonresponders, and we could have a volunteer effect.
Validity of responses must be judged in the light that the data is based on recall and may well be subject to observer biases. A medical review is necessary.
Competing risk factors: we have no information on confounding.
We have no objective data for exposure to Canal chemicals, so that is unclear and we cannot make a proper assessment.
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Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed Jeebhay and Rodney Ehrlich, Health Sciences UCT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License. Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers, Leslie London, Sophie Kisting, Rajen Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo. Source available from here. For any updates to the material, or more permissions beyond the scope of this license, please email healthoer@uct.ac.za or visit www.healthedu.uct.ac.za.
Last updated Jan 2007.
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