Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. Supplement

AIMS: To use a multidisciplinary approach to describe the prevalence, lay beliefs, health impact, and treatment of hypertension in the Agincourt sub-district. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team used a range of methods including a cross-sectional random sample survey of vascular risk factors in adults aged 35 years and older, and rapid ethnographic assessment. People who had suffered a stroke were identified by a screening questionnaire followed by a detailed history and examination by a clinician to confirm the likely diagnosis of stroke...

AIMS: To utilize the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) platform to assess the burden of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a rural South African sub-district. METHODS: During 1999, data from three sources were combined to estimate disease prevalence amongst a non-migrant adult population: (1) passive case-finding (PCF) through hospital register data; (2) active case finding (ACF) using a systematic household assessment of chronic coughers; and (3) verbal autopsy (VA) data on cause of death...

AIM: To examine the hypothesis that circular labour migrants who become seriously ill while living away from home return to their rural homes to convalesce and possibly to die. METHODS: Drawing on longitudinal data collected by the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system in rural northeastern South Africa between 1995 and 2004, discrete time event history analysis is used to estimate the likelihood of dying for residents, short-term returning migrants, and long-term returning migrants controlling for sex, age, and historical period...

AIMS: This paper examines trends in age-specific mortality in a rural South African population from 1992 to 2003, a decade spanning major sociopolitical change and emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Changing mortality patterns are discussed within a health-transition framework. METHODS: Data on population size, structure, and deaths, obtained from the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system, were used to calculate person-years at risk and death rates...

There are some 37 demographic surveillance system sites active in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Central America. These sites, and other longitudinal population and health research projects, generate data over time in order to describe and explain the event histories of individuals and the populations they constitute. This note addresses key data management challenges presented by such complex temporal data-gathering efforts. Ideas supporting a standard definition for temporal population data, and a standard design for temporal databases to improve management of longitudinal population data, are presented and briefly discussed...

RATIONALE FOR STUDY: Vital registration is generally lacking in infrastructurally weak areas where health and development problems are most pressing. Health and demographic surveillance is a response to the lack of a valid information base that can provide high-quality longitudinal data on population dynamics, health, and social change to inform policy and practice. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT PROCEDURES: Continuous demographic monitoring of an entire geographically defined population involves a multi-round, prospective community study, with annual recording of all vital events (births, deaths, migrations)...

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