Brain cancer survival in Kentucky: 1996-2000.

This is a report of brain cancer survival patterns in certain Area Development Districts (ADDs) in Kentucky, the state, and the nation. Brain cancer is of national and regional concern as it is a disease of high case fatality rates and relatively short survival. Comparisons for survival were made between the U.

Stroke mortality in Tennessee: an eco-epidemiologic perspective.

Prevention of stroke mortality in Tennessee is a statewide public health priority. These analyses describe how the distribution of Caucasian stroke mortality is greater among the state's Appalachian Counties. For African-American residents, the elevated stroke mortality risk is not distinctive for geographic regions, although Upper East Tennessee rates are elevated.

Unstaged lung cancer in Kentucky.

Comparisons were made for unstaged lung cancer cases both to "staged" lung cancer cases and to unstaged cases from all other sites, in Kentucky for 1996-2000. Principal findings were that the likelihood of the lung cancer cases to be unstaged was greater when the cancer incidence report came from sources other than a hospital. This may implicate data system forces [for availability of necessary data for completing stage at diagnosis] rather than differences between cases per se.

Scale and shape issues in focused cluster power for count data.

BACKGROUND: Interest in the development of statistical methods for disease cluster detection has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Evaluations of statistical power provide important information for the selection of an appropriate statistical method in environmentally-related disease cluster investigations. Published power evaluations have not yet addressed the use of models for focused cluster detection and have not fully investigated the issues of disease cluster scale and shape.

Mentorship and competencies for applied chronic disease epidemiology.

To understand the potential and establish a framework for mentoring as a method to develop professional competencies of state-level applied chronic disease epidemiologists, model mentorship programs were reviewed, specific competencies were identified, and competencies were then matched to essential public health services. Although few existing mentorship programs in public health were identified, common themes in other professional mentorship programs support the potential of mentoring as an effective means to develop capacity for applied chronic disease epidemiology. Proposed competencies for chronic disease epidemiologists in a mentorship program include planning, analysis, communication, basic public health, informatics and computer knowledge, and cultural diversity.