Behavioural Change Piecewise Constant Spatial Epidemic Models.

Human behaviour significantly affects the dynamics of infectious disease transmission as people adjust their behavior in response to outbreak intensity, thereby impacting disease spread and control efforts. In recent years, there have been efforts to incorporate behavioural change into spatio-temporal individual-level models within a Bayesian MCMC framework. In this past work, parametric spatial risk functions were employed, depending on strong underlying assumptions regarding disease transmission mechanisms within the population.

A Study of Disability Severity, Barriers, and Facilitating Factors in Accessing Healthcare Among Differently Abled Adults.

Background: Disability impacts many individuals, thus restricting access to necessary healthcare. Barriers that affect health equity among people with disabilities include physical inaccessibility, financial constraints, and stigma in society. This study aims to report on the level of disability and factors determining healthcare access among adult differently abled persons in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, focusing on the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.

Barriers to and facilitators of breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening and cancer screening histories of Métis people in Alberta, Canada.

Comprehensive evaluation of cancer screening activities based on individual experiences is urgently needed to address the burden of cancer among Métis people. In this co-designed and co-led study, a cancer screening questionnaire developed for Métis people to evaluate their cancer screening histories and to explore barriers and facilitators to cancer screening was used. Adult Métis Albertans were invited to participate in the anonymous survey through a multi-modal strategy used for community consultations.

Individual-level models of disease transmission incorporating piecewise spatial risk functions.

Modelling epidemics is crucial for understanding the emergence, transmission, impact and control of diseases. Spatial individual-level models (ILMs) that account for population heterogeneity are a useful tool, accounting for factors such as location, vaccination status and genetic information. Parametric forms for spatial risk functions, or kernels, are often used, but rely on strong assumptions about underlying transmission mechanisms.