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Detection and assessment of clusters of disease: An application to nuclear power plant facilities and childhood leukaemia in Sweden
Author(s) -
Waller Lance A.,
Turnbull Bruce W.,
Gustafsson Göran,
Hjalmars Ulf,
Andersson Bertil
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.4780140103
Subject(s) - childhood leukaemia , nuclear power plant , disease , environmental health , medicine , statistics , pediatrics , nuclear physics , physics , mathematics , pathology
Abstract We review some recent statistical methods for examining geographic patterns of disease incidence for the presence of clusters. General methods search for clusters throughout the study area and then assess the statistical significance of any clusters detected. Focused methods check for elevated incidence rates close to prespecified locations of putative sources of hazard. We apply the methods to leukaemia incidence data for children aged 0–15 years in Sweden (1980–1990), particularly in reference to locations of nuclear power facilities. Unlike some other studies, notably in the United Kingdom, we do not find any significant clusters.