The sciences of statistics and systematic analysis applied to the causes of health and disease.
Questions tagged [epidemiology]
56 questions
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Did an experimental Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) cause the AIDS pandemic?
Aidsorigins.com mentioned in a post that:
The oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory of origin of AIDS proposes that an
experimental OPV made in a unique manner was administered to nearly
one million Africans in the 1957-1960 period, leading to the…
user26068
12
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1 answer
Do diets containing meat and milk cause a large proportion of breast cancer?
Kristi Funk is a breast cancer surgeon, famous (I assume) for treating Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow (I assume these are famous people). She has a new book to promote and has been doing publicity for it. So there are plenty of interviews with her…
matt_black
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Does colonoscopy screening reduce the risk of death due to colon cancer?
The article Colonoscopy Still ‘Gold Standard’ For Preventing Colon Cancer, Johns Hopkins Expert Says mention that the colonoscopy is the gold standard in detecting colon cancer even though there are still other tests that help.
A colon cancer…
user275517
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Does passive smoking kill 600,000 people every year?
While reading David Nutt's book on the harms caused by legal and illegal drugs and how to minimise them (Drugs without the hot air), I came across a claim which reminded me of some previous questions on passive smoking here (for example this…
matt_black
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Are political leaders from Latin America unusually prone to cancer?
Venezuela's entertaining president, Hugo Chavez, was recently reported to have speculated that the USA has developed a secret technology to give cancer to left-wing leaders in Latin America.
I think this claim is a little too crazy to merit…
matt_black
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Do 50% of prostitutes have HIV?
The Prostitution Statistics You Have to Know claims that:
50% of prostitutes throughout the world have contracted the HIV virus
(For this statistic it references this BBC news article: The men who sleep with prostitutes)
Is this true?
user4951
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Would higher taxes on sausages and bacon save hundreds of thousands of lives every year?
A recent analysis of the health-related harms associated with red and processed meat has hit the news with headlines like this (from the Guardian):
Taxing red meat would save many lives, research shows
The cost of bacon and sausages would double if…
matt_black
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Are the Apollo astronauts experiencing heart disease at a higher than average rate?
ArsTechnica used a headline (and this has been reported elsewhere):
Apollo astronauts dying of heart disease at 4-5X the rate of normal humans
What is the evidence relating to the headline's claim?
This story is based on a sample of 77 astronauts…
matt_black
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Is the overprescribing of pharmaceuticals now one of the leading causes of death?
In an article in iNews some British experts have called, among other things, for an enquiry into the overuse of prescription drugs:
Leading British health experts are calling for a Chilcot-style inquiry into why they say tens of thousands of people…
matt_black
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Are child thyroid cancer rates around Fukushima 20—50x higher?
According to Researcher: Children's cancer linked to Fukushima radiation
By YURI KAGEYAMA Oct. 8, 2015 4:25 AM EDT
A new study says children living near the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a rate 20 to 50…
Brian M. Hunt
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Do workplace smoking bans reduce the number of heart attacks?
There is a lively debate on the health impact of passive smoking (other questions on skeptics.se are here Does passive smoking kill 600,000 people every year? and here Is secondhand smoke dangerous?).
But anti-smoking health campaigners made some…
matt_black
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Will 25% of people in Western society develop a mental disorder during their life?
In a profile article published in the Cyprus Mail newspaper (Nov. 2012), Dr John Stein, Emeritus Professor of Physiology & Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, claimed:
“a quarter of people in Western societies will get some mental disorder at…
Carlo Alterego
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Are polyfluorinated chemicals linked to men's penises being smaller?
A recent story in Huffpost raises the spectre that cooking in non-stick pans could be harming male fertility, not least by making penises smaller:
Chemicals used to make non-stick pans have been linked to men having smaller penises. Yes, you read…
matt_black
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Is bruxism (teeth grinding) linked to parasitic infection?
There seems to be the common conception that bruxism (teeth grinding and jaw clenching) is a symptom of parasitic infections.
For example, this article by a dentist:
Sometimes teeth grinding is caused by worms like intestinal parasites and pin…
Alex Petrosyan
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Do cloth facemasks help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to healthy members of the public?
One of the most politicised scientific issues of 2020 was the question about whether face-masks stop the spread of COVID-19. I trust we can agree that this is notable without requiring specific examples.
In particular:
When worn by members of the…
Oddthinking
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