Spatial spillover analysis of a cluster-randomized trial against dengue vectors in Trujillo, Venezuela.

Background: The ability of cluster-randomized trials to capture mass or indirect effects is one reason for their increasing use to test interventions against vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. For the same reason, however, the independence of clusters may be compromised if the distances between clusters is too small to ensure independence. In other words they may be subject to spillover effects.

Spatial regression and spillover effects in cluster randomized trials with count outcomes.

This paper describes methodology for analyzing data from cluster randomized trials with count outcomes, taking indirect effects as well spatial effects into account. Indirect effects are modeled using a novel application of a measure of depth within the intervention arm. Both direct and indirect effects can be estimated accurately even when the proposed model is misspecified.

Antipsychotic drugs and risks of myocardial infarction: a self-controlled case series study.

Aim: Antipsychotics increase the risk of stroke. Their effect on myocardial infarction remains uncertain because people prescribed and not prescribed antipsychotic drugs differ in their underlying vascular risk making between-person comparisons difficult to interpret. The aim of our study was to investigate this association using the self-controlled case series design that eliminates between-person confounding effects.

Estimation of basic reproduction numbers: individual heterogeneity and robustness to perturbation of the contact function.

The basic reproduction number of an infection in a given population, R0, is inflated by individual heterogeneity in contact rates. Recently, new methods for estimating R0 using social contact data and serological survey data have been proposed. These methods, like most of their predecessors, ignore individual heterogeneity, and are sensitive to perturbation of the contact function.