Bicycle helmet wearing in a sample of urban disadvantaged primary school children

Bicycle helmet wearing is currently not legally enforced in Ireland and little is known about the self-reported practice amongst young children. The principal aim of this study was to assess self-reported helmet wearing amongst a sample (n = 314) of primary school children (aged 8-13 years) attending disadvantaged schools in Dublin. Approximately 86% of the sample owned a bike and provided a response to the question on helmet use. The findings indicate that helmet wearing is not a widespread practice (50.4%; 136/270 report never wearing helmets). As children get older, reported practice is also less likely with 67% (27/40) of 12/13 year-olds compared to 38% (31/81) of 8/9 year-olds reporting never wearing protective headgear. Regardless of age, more girls (61%; 82/135) than boys (39%; 52/135) indicated always/sometimes using helmets when cycling. Conversely, the findings show that (mandatory) seatbelt wearing is standard practice for the majority (93%; 252/270). The findings relating to helmet wearing add further to the debate around the mandatory introduction of protective headgear for cyclists.

A capture-recapture study of the prevalence and implications of opiate use in Dublin

BACKGROUND

To date there have been no studies estimating the hidden prevalence of opiate use in Dublin.

METHODS

A multisource enumeration followed by the application of the capture-recapture method with log-linear modelling including age and gender stratification to remove heterogeneity was implemented to provide an estimate of the unknown size of the opiate-using population. Two medical and one legal data sources were used.

RESULTS

It was found that the ratio of known to unknown opiate users was 1:1.15 with a total of 13,460 (95% CI: 12,037-15,306) users estimated in Dublin in 1996.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study have important ramifications for service delivery.

Methods for estimating prevalence of opiate use as an aid to policy and planning

Public health planning continues to be troubled by the uncertainty of the extent of hidden drug use. Methods for estimating the prevalence of opiate use are discussed. These include multisource enumeration, death multiplier, multiple indicator, and capture-recapture methods. The feasibility and data requirements for each of these methods is illustrated for the first time in an Irish context. Estimates presented are the result of years of intensive collaboration between previously unconnected government, health, and legal agencies. Finally, the implications of the methods and their results for the planning and provision of medical and social policy are highlighted and discussed.

AIDS in Ireland: the reporting delay distribution and the implementation of integral equation models

This paper deals with two basic aspects concerning the modelling of AIDS incidence in the context of Irish data. We describe initially the adjustment of the number of AIDS cases (Xij) to allow for reporting delays, where a simple form of the likelihood function for the Xij is supported by GLIM. Subsequently, we consider the accessibility of numerical solution (through a NAG routine) of the integral equation models generated by the back-projection method for the adjusted AIDS cases. Results for the Irish data are summarized for various choices of the incidence distribution.

Measles vaccination--what percentage uptake must we aim for?

The estimation and derivation of the average age of infection with measles among Irish children is discussed. We found that this equals 3.14 years, a figure that is considerably lower than that of other European countries particularly Britain. The average age of vaccination of children in Irish communities was 2.6 years. The reproductive rate of the disease was defined as the average number of secondary cases produced by one infectious individual in a community. From this, we extrapolate estimates for the proportion we need to vaccinate in order to eradicate measles in Ireland, which is in the region of 95% to 96%. In practice this level may be very difficult to achieve.