John Libbey Eurotext




Case clusters in environmental health, their random components, and a tool for public health decision support
Environnement, Risques & Santé. Volume 2, Number 4, 231-5, Juillet 2003, Article original
Résumé Article gratuit
Author(s) : Cécile Le Bouëdec, Séverine Deguen, Denis Bard
Summary : Disease clusters attributed to environmental exposures are observed increasingly more often in France. In principle, all of them should be investigated and the statistical significance of any reported excess verified. If confirmed, both etiological research and a set of general public health measures are necessary. When investigating these clusters, however, it should be borne in mind that they may be due to chance alone. We propose a tool for decision‐makers in public health to help take into account the random component of a cluster.
Keywords : cluster analysis\; public health\; decision support techniques.

Case clusters in environmental health, their random components, and a tool for public health decision support