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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.11.025 Byline: Michael Emch (a)(c), Mohammad Ali (b), Elisabeth D. Root (a)(c), Mohammad Yunus (d) Abstract: This paper develops theory and methods for vaccine trials that utilize spatial and environmental information. Satellite imagery is used to identify whether households are connected to one another via water bodies in a study area in rural Bangladesh. Then relationships between neighborhood-level cholera vaccine coverage and placebo incidence and neighborhood-level spatial variables are measured. The study hypothesis is that unvaccinated people who are environmentally connected to people who have been vaccinated will be at lower risk compared to unvaccinated people who are environmentally connected to people who have not been vaccinated. We use four datasets including: a cholera vaccine trial database, a longitudinal demographic database of the rural population from which the vaccine trial participants were selected, a household-level geographic information system (GIS) database of the same study area, and high resolution Quickbird satellite imagery. An environmental connectivity metric was constructed by integrating the satellite imagery with the vaccine and demographic databases linked with GIS. The results show that there is a relationship between neighborhood rates of cholera vaccination and placebo incidence. Thus, people are indirectly protected when more people in their environmentally connected neighborhood are vaccinated. This result is similar to our previous work that used a simpler Euclidean distance neighborhood to measure neighborhood vaccine coverage [Ali, M., Emch, M., von Seidlein, L., Yunus, M., Sack, D. A., Holmgren, J., et al. (2005). Herd immunity conferred by killed oral cholera vaccines in Bangladesh. Lancet, 366(9479), 44-49]. Our new method of measuring environmental connectivity is more precise since it takes into account the transmission mode of cholera and therefore this study validates our assertion that the oral cholera vaccine provides indirect protection in addition to direct protection. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Geography, University of North Carolina, Saunders Hall, Campus Box 3220, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3220, United States (b) International Vaccine Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea (c) Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States (d) International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh Article Note: (footnote) [star] Funded by National Institutes of Health, Grant # 1R03AI53214-01 and National Science Foundation, Grant # BCS 0323131.

Summary: The International Initiative on Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology (ISLE) convened its first International Symposium on Lifecourse Epidemiology and Spatial Science at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, Netherlands, 16-20 July 2018. Its aim was to further an emerging transdisciplinary field: Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology. This field draws from a broad perspective of scientific disciplines including lifecourse epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, community health, spatial science, health geography, biostatistics, spatial statistics, environmental science, climate change, exposure science, health economics, evidence-based public health, and landscape ecology. The participants, spanning 30 institutions in 10 countries, sought to identify the key issues and research priorities in spatial lifecourse epidemiology. The results published here are a synthesis of the top 10 list that emerged out of the discussion by a panel of leading experts, reflecting a set of grand challenges for spatial lifecourse epidemiology in the coming years. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4868, Introduction The rapid increase in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) poses a significant and growing global public health threat. According to the WHO, NCDs will be the leading cause of deaths in [...]