Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (9)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Struchiner, C. J.
Right arrow Articles by Massad, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Struchiner, C. J.
Right arrow Articles by Massad, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 28, 776-781, Copyright © 1999 by International Epidemiological Association

ARTICLES

Hepatitis A incidence rate estimates from a pilot seroprevalence survey in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

CJ Struchiner, LM de Almeida, RS de Azevedo and E Massad
PROCC/Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

BACKGROUND: To assess the impact of water sanitation and sewage disposal, part of a major environmental control programme in Rio de Janeiro, we carried out sero-prevalence studies for Hepatitis A virus (HAV) in three micro-regions in Rio de Janeiro. Each region varied with regard to level of sanitation. We are interested in assessing the discriminating power of age-specific prevalence curves for HAV as a proxy for improvement in sanitation. These curves will serve as baseline information to future planned surveys as the sanitation programme progresses. METHODS: Incidence rate curves from prevalence data are estimated parametrically via a Weibull-like survival function, and non-parametrically via maximum likelihood and monotonic splines. Sera collected from children and adults in the three areas are used to detect antibodies against HAV through ELISA. RESULTS: We compare baseline incidence curves at the three sites estimated by the three methods. We observe a strong negative correlation between level of sanitation and incidence rates for HAV infection. Incidence estimates yielded by the parametric and non-parametric approaches tend to agree at early ages in the microregion showing the best level of sanitation and to increasingly disagree in the other two. CONCLUSION: Our results support the choice of HAV as a sentinel disease that is associated with level of sanitation. We also introduce monotonic splines as a novel non- parametric approach to estimate incidence from prevalence data. This approach outperforms current estimating procedures.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
R. A. de Alencar Ximenes, C. M. T. Martelli, E. Merchan-Hamann, U. R. Montarroyos, M. C. Braga, M. L. C. de Lima, M. R. A. Cardoso, M. D. Turchi, M. A. Costa, L. C. A. de Alencar, et al.
Multilevel analysis of hepatitis A infection in children and adolescents: a household survey in the Northeast and Central-west regions of Brazil
Int. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2008; 37(4): 852 - 861.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
K. Jacobsen and J. Koopman
The effects of socioeconomic development on worldwide hepatitis A virus seroprevalence patterns
Int. J. Epidemiol., June 1, 2005; 34(3): 600 - 609.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.