Estimating human papillomavirus vaccination coverage among young women in Victoria and reasons for non-vaccination.

Unlabelled: Background Adult Australian women aged 18 to 26 years were offered human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in a mass catch up campaign between 2007 and 2009. Not all doses administered were notified to Australia's HPV vaccine register and not all young women commenced or completed the vaccine course.

Methods: We surveyed vaccine age-eligible women as part of the Victorian Population Health Survey 2011-2012, a population based telephone survey, to ascertain self-reported vaccine uptake and reasons for non-vaccination or non-completion of vaccination among young women resident in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Prevalence and factors associated with polypharmacy in Victorian adults with intellectual disability.

Although polypharmacy is a medication safety concern leading to increased risk of non-adherence, adverse drug reaction and drug-drug interactions, polypharmacy and associated risk factors has rarely been investigated involving people with ID at a population level. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the prevalence of polypharmacy and to evaluate the role of different factors associated with polypharmacy in a state-wide representative population of adults with ID. In a population-based survey in Victoria, Australia, 897 people with ID 18 years of age or older were selected by simple random sampling.

Health and wellbeing of Victorian adults with intellectual disability compared to the general Victorian population.

Multiple measures of health and wellbeing of people with intellectual disability (ID) and the general Victorian population were compared using representative population level data. The sample consisted of adults with ID (N=897) and the general Victorian population (N=34,168) living in the state of Victoria in Australia. Proxy respondents were interviewed on behalf of people with ID, while respondents from the general Victorian population were interviewed directly.

Blood lead levels in the adult Victorian population: results from the Victorian Health Monitor.

Objective: To estimate blood lead levels (BLLs) in the adult Victorian population and compare the distribution of BLLs with the current national reference level to better inform public health prevention and management of lead toxicity.

Methods: Population-based cross-sectional health measurement survey of 50 randomly selected Census Collection Districts (CDs) throughout Victoria. The Victorian Health Monitor (VHM) was conducted over 12 months from May 2009 to April 2010.

Opposing socioeconomic gradients in overweight and obese adults.

Objective: Investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and prevalence of overweight and/or obesity, by sex, using total annual household income as the indicator of SES and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended ranges of self-reported Body Mass Index (BMI) as the indicator of overweight and/or obesity.

Methods: Total annual household income and BMI data were obtained from the Victorian Population Health Survey (VPHS), an annual computer-assisted telephone survey of the health and well-being of Victorian adults aged 18 years and older. Statistical analysis was conducted using ordinary least squares linear regression on the logarithms of age-standardised prevalence estimates of overweight (25.

A lower than expected adult Victorian community attack rate for pandemic (H1N1) 2009.

Objectives: To determine the community seropositivity of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in order to estimate immunity and the community attack rate.

Methods: Selected clusters of participants (n=706) in the 'Victorian Health Monitor' (VHM), from whom blood samples were taken between August and October 2009, were tested opportunistically for antibodies to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus. A titre of > or = 1:40 was chosen as the cut-off for recording seropositivity.

A public health model of the social determinants of health.

As we move forward in the new century, epidemiologists and public health practitioners are faced with the challenge of reviewing the current direction of epidemiology and its links with public health. While the history of epidemiology has been a successful and productive one, there is a danger that modern epidemiology is becoming too narrow in its scope, concerned primarily with the analysis of risk factors in individuals, while ignoring sociological and ecological perspectives of health. We argue that a theoretical framework to guide the practice of epidemiology is needed which encompasses a role for social determinants of health while simultaneously also acknowledging the importance of behaviour and biology, and the inter-connectedness of all these factors.