QUESTION 4b

Interpret the data, taking into account the possible effects of:

QUESTION 4c

Were the denominators appropriate? What other rates would make sense? See model answer

QUESTION 4d

Are there any other reproductive outcomes or reproductive health issues of interest? See model answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Answer 1:

The sample sizes are modest, too small for accurate risk estimates.
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Answer 2:

Self reported outcomes such as abortion and birth defects may suffer from recall bias and require confirmation from medical charts. The easiest data to validate will be birth weight from birth certificates, hospital records.
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Answer 3:

A surrogate for exposure might include length of residence, distance from the canal or distance from the swale, (a swale is a natural pathway of water flow). Confounders to be considered include SES, occupation, genetics, parity, alcohol, medications, other illnesses such as diabetes etc.
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Answer to Part c:

The commonly used denominator is the # of live births, one might argue that the number of women is a better denominator.
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Answer to Part d:

One could do a more in depth study of birth outcomes, including fecundity or fertility. These researchers studied self reported birth defects.

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Creative Commons License
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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