Health Physics Society Meeting

[epirad@mchsi.com]

Dr. John Boice is presesenting an overview on Radiation Epidemiology at this 

years HPS meetings.  It may be a good opportunity for those interested in 

learning more about the strengths and limitations of the various epidemiologic 

designs. 



Regards, Bill 



Radiation Epidemiology for the Health Physicist.



J.D. Boice, Jr., International Epidemiology Institute and Vanderbilt 

University Medical Center



Epidemiology from a radiation perspective will be presented with kaleidoscope 

coverage of past and present studies of interest to the health physicist. 

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in 

human populations; but not all studies are equal. Experimental studies 

(clinical trials) and cohort studies (e.g., atomic bomb survivors) identify 

individuals with and without expo-sure and then follow them forward in time to 

determine cancer outcome. Case-control studies (e.g., prenatal x-ray, in-door 

radon) identify persons with and without the disease of interest, and then 

prior radiation exposures are determined and compared. Ecological studies 

(e.g., cancer risk living near nuclear facilities) compare cancer rates of 

populations living in geographically defined areas with potential for exposure 

to cancer rates in populations living in other areas with supposedly lower 

exposure potential. Actual exposure to individuals, however, is unknown in 

geographical correlation studies. Epidemiology is an observational science 

(non-experimental) and is thus susceptible to confounding factors (e.g., 

smoking) and biasing factors (e.g., differential recall) that can distort 

study results. Cohort studies are the least susceptible to biases and 

ecological studies the most. Strengths and limitations of specific radiation 

studies will be discussed.

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