[IEEE-bhpjobs] Fwd: [healthcareengineering] Healthcare Engineering Seminar 3/27: Impact of smoking on tuberculosis

[Esther Lumsdon]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Roberts <roberts at eos.ncsu.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Subject: [healthcareengineering] Next Healthcare Engineering Seminar
To: healthcareengineering at lists.ncsu.edu


The next Healthcare Engineering Seminar on Thursday March 27, 2008 will be
 given by Professor Kristen Hassmiller Lich, Assistant Professor of Health
 Policy and Administration from UNC-CH Department of Health Policy and
 Administration.  The title of her talk is "The impact of smoking on
 population-level tuberculosis outcomes."  Remember the seminar is held in
 Daniels Hall Room 401 at NC State University from 4:30-5:30pm, with a social
 beginning at 4:15pm.

 An abstract of the talk is:
 The relationship between smoking and diseases such as lung cancer and heart
 disease is well established. A growing body of research indicates that there
 is also a relationship between smoking and many infectious diseases -
 including tuberculosis (TB). A large number of epidemiological studies,
 conducted in a variety of populations around the globe, find that smokers
 are at an increased risk of being infected with/ Mycobacterium
 tuberculosis/, of developing TB disease, and of dying from tuberculosis.
 These relationships are not explained away by controlling for potentially
 confounding factors such as age, SES, alcohol consumption, or HIV status. A
 strong dose response relationship exists; the more a person smokes and the
 longer a person smokes, the greater are these risks. And yet, this
 association is largely unknown to the public health policy community.

 Of critical importance here is the fact that the effects of smoking on TB
 are fundamentally different from the effects of smoking on diseases such as
 lung cancer or heart disease in that an increase in the risk of tuberculosis
 is not confined to the smoker himself. Tuberculosis is infectious. In fact,
 when the indirect effects of contagion are captured in a dynamic simulation
 model of TB transmission and progression, the estimated impact of smoking on
 population-level TB outcomes doubles.

 There are a couple of important lessons here, which will be explored in more
 depth in the presentation. First, as more evidence emerges about the effects
 of tobacco exposure on infectious disease risks, we must not ignore these
 indirect or ripple effects related to contagion. Second, in determining how
 best to control TB, one should not focus on only risk factors for which
 relative risk estimates are greatest. The prevalence of the risk factor,
 characteristics of those who possess the risk factor and details about how
 disease dynamics are altered must also be considered.

 ********************************************
 Stephen D. Roberts
 Professor of Ind.and Systems Engineering
 Edward P. Fitts Department of
    Industrial and Systems Engineering
 Campus Box 7906
 400 Daniels Hall
 111 Lampe Drive
 Campus Box 7906
 North Carolina State University
 Raleigh, NC 27695-7906
 Email: roberts at eos.ncsu.edu
 Web: http://www.ie.ncsu.edu/roberts
 Office Phone: (919) 515-6400
 Departmental Phone: (919) 515-2362
 Fax: (919) 515-5281
 ********************************************






-- 
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Esther L, estherlist at gmail.com
"A dirty car is a sign of civic responsibility nowadays." Mike Easley,
NC Governor