Papers by Peter Diggle
PLoS neglected tropical diseases, Jul 1, 2016
There is a paucity of robust epidemiological data on snakebite, and data available from hospitals... more There is a paucity of robust epidemiological data on snakebite, and data available from hospitals and localized or time-limited surveys have major limitations. No study has investigated the incidence of snakebite across a whole country. We undertook a community-based national survey and model based geostatistics to determine incidence, envenoming, mortality and geographical pattern of snakebite in Sri Lanka. The survey was designed to sample a population distributed equally among the nine provinces of the country. The number of data collection clusters was divided among districts in proportion to their population. Within districts clusters were randomly selected. Population based incidence of snakebite and significant envenoming were estimated. Model-based geostatistics was used to develop snakebite risk maps for Sri Lanka. 1118 of the total of 14022 GN divisions with a population of 165665 (0.8%of the country's population) were surveyed. The crude overall community incidence of...
Placenta, 2010
Condensation: Term placental inter-villus space lining is a mosaic of endothelial cells, trophobl... more Condensation: Term placental inter-villus space lining is a mosaic of endothelial cells, trophoblast and fibrin: component area percentages alter in pre-eclampsia indicating "poor-repair" aetiology.
Parasites & vectors, 2014
The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) was created to control onchocerciasis as ... more The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) was created to control onchocerciasis as a public health problem in 20 African countries. Its main strategy is community directed treatment with ivermectin. In order to identify all high risk areas where ivermectin treatment was needed, APOC used Rapid Epidemiological Mapping of Onchocerciasis (REMO). REMO has now been virtually completed and we report the results in two articles. The present article reports the mapping of high risk areas where onchocerciasis was a public health problem. The companion article reports the results of a geostatistical analysis of the REMO data to map endemicity levels and estimate the number infected. REMO consists of three stages: exclusion of areas that are unsuitable for the vector, selection of sample villages to be surveyed in each river basin, and examination of 30 to 50 adults for the presence of palpable onchocercal nodules in each selected village. The survey results and other relevant in...
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis , which, during the fourt... more Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis , which, during the fourteenth century, caused the deaths of an estimated 75–200 million people in Europe. Plague epidemics still occur in Africa, Asia and South America. Madagascar is today one of the most endemic countries, reporting nearly one third of the human cases world- wide from 2004 to 2009. The persistence of plague in Madagascar is associated with en- vironmental and climatic conditions. In this paper we present a case study of the spatio- temporal analysis of plague incidence in Madagascar from 1980 to 2007. We study the relationship of plague with temperature and precipitation anomalies, and with elevation. A joint spatio-temporal analysis of the data proves to be computationally intractable. We therefore develop a spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox process model, but then carry out marginal temporal and spatial analyses. We also introduce a spatially discrete approxima- tion for Gaussian processes, whose parameters retain a spatially continuous interpretation. We find evidence of a cumulative effect, over time, of temperature anomalies on plague incidence, and of a very high relative risk of plague occurrence for locations above 800 m in elevation. Our approach provides a useful modeling framework to assess the relation- ship between exposures and plague risk, irrespective of the spatial resolution at which the latter has been recorded.
Background: Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess Quality of Life (QoL) is we... more Background: Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess Quality of Life (QoL) is well established, but commonly-used PROM item-sets do not necessarily capture what all respondents consider important. Measuring complex constructs is particularly difficult in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) is a validated antenatal and postnatal QoL instrument in which the variables and scores are completely respondent-driven. This paper reports on the feasibility and acceptability of the MGI in an RCT, and compares the resulting variables and QoL scores with more commonly used instruments. Methods: The single-page MGI was included at the end of a ten page questionnaire pack and posted to the RCT participants at baseline (28–32 weeks' gestation) and follow-up (six weeks postnatal). Feasibility and acceptability were assessed by ease of administration, data entry and completion rates. Variables cited by women were analysed thematically. MGI QoL scores were compared with outcomes from the EQ-5D-3 L; Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; Satisfaction With Life Scale; and State Trait Anxiety Inventory.
Publications & Presentations by Peter Diggle
This paper focuses upon two issues. Firstly, the question of identifying diachronic trends, and m... more This paper focuses upon two issues. Firstly, the question of identifying diachronic trends, and more importantly significant outliers, in corpora which permit an investigation of a feature at many sampling points over time. Secondly, we consider how best to combine more qualitatively oriented approaches to corpus data with the type of trends that can be observed in a corpus using quantitative techniques. The work uses a recently completed ESRC-funded project as a case study, the representation of Islam in the UK press, in order to demonstrate the potential of the approach taken to establishing significant peaks in diachronic frequency development, and the fruitful interface that may be created between qualitative and quantitative techniques.
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Papers by Peter Diggle
Publications & Presentations by Peter Diggle