Measures of disease impact - Further reading

General principles

• Browner WS, Newman TB. Sample size and power based on the population attributable fraction. Am J Public Health 1979;79:1289-94.
• Bruzzi P, Green SB, Dyer DP, Brinton LA, Schairer C. Estimating the population attributable risk for multiple risk factors using case-control data. Am J Epidemiol 1985;122:904-14.
• Coughlin SS, Bencihou J, Weed DL. Attributable risk estimation in case-control studies. Epidemiol Rev 1994;16:51-64.
• Fleiss JL. Inference about population attributable risk from cross-sectional studies. Am J Epidemiol 1979;110:103-104.
• Greenland S, Robins JM. Conceptual problems in the definition and interpretation of attributable fractions. Am J Epidemiol 1988;128:1185-97.
• Hanley JA. A heuristic approach to the formulas for population attributable fraction. J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:508-14.
• Heller RF, Dobson AJ, Attia J, Page J. Impact numbers: measures of risk factor impact on the whole population from case-control and cohort studies. J Epidemiol Community Health 2002;56:606-10.
• Heller RF, Buchan I, Edwards R, Lyratzopulos G, McElduff P, St Leger S. Communicating risks at the population level: application of population impact numbers. Br Med J 2003;327:1162-5.
• Northridge ME. Public health methods – attributable risk as a link between causality and public health action. Am J Public Health 1995;85:1202-3.
• Rockhill B, Newman B, Weiberg C. Use and misuse of population attributable fractions. Am J Public Health 1998;88:15-19.
• Rowe A, Powell KE, Flanders WD. Why population attributable fractions can sum to more than one. Am J Prev Med 2004;26:243-9.
• Taylor JW. Simple estimation of population attributable risk from case-control studies. Am J Epidemiol 1977;106:260.
• Walter DS. Calculation of attributable risks from epidemiological data. Int J Epidemiol 1978;7:175-82.
• Walter DS. Effects of interaction, confounding and observational error on attributable risk estimation. Am J Epidemiol 1983;117:598-604.

Examples from field epidemiology

• Bhunia R. Hutin Y. Ramakrishnan R. Pal N. Sen T. Murhekar M. A typhoid fever outbreak in a slum of South Dumdum municipality, West Bengal, India, 2007: evidence for foodborne and waterborne transmission. BMC Public Health 2009;9:115.
• Birmingham ME. Lee LA. Ntakibirora M. Bizimana F. Deming MS. A household survey of dysentery in Burundi: implications for the current pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Bull World Health Org 1997;75:45-53.
• Caceres VM. Ball RT. Somerfeldt SA. Mackey RL. Nichols SE. MacKenzie WR. Herwaldt BL. A foodborne outbreak of cyclosporiasis caused by imported raspberries. J Family Pract 1998;47:231-4.
• Crocetti E. Arniani S. Bordoni F. Maciocco G. Zappa M. Buiatti E. Effectiveness of influenza vaccination in the elderly in a community in Italy. Eur J Epidemiol 2001;17:163-8.
• Hennessy TW. Cheng LH. Kassenborg H. Ahuja SD. Mohle-Boetani J. Marcus R. Shiferaw B. Angulo FJ. Emerging Infections Program FoodNet Working Group. Egg consumption is the principal risk factor for sporadic Salmonella serotype * Heidelberg infections: a case-control study in FoodNet sites. Clin Infect Dis 2004;38 Suppl 3:S237-43.
• Pepin J. Saheb N. Coulombe MA. Alary ME. Corriveau MP. Authier S. Leblanc M. Rivard G. Bettez M. Primeau V. Nguyen M. Jacob CE. Lanthier L. Emergence of fluoroquinolones as the predominant risk factor for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea: a cohort study during an epidemic in Quebec. Clin Infect Dis 2005;41:1254-60.
• Richardson G. Thomas DR. Smith RM. Nehaul L. Ribeiro CD. Brown AG. Salmon RL. A community outbreak of Campylobacter jejuni infection from a chlorinated public water supply. Epidemiol Infect 2007;135:1151-8.
• Walter ND. Taylor TH. Shay DK. Thompson WW. Brammer L. Dowell SF. Moore MR. Active Bacterial Core Surveillance Team. Influenza circulation and the burden of invasive pneumococcal pneumonia during a non-pandemic period in the United States. Clin Infect Dis 2010;50:175-83.