Brian L. Gibson

Protective Behavior and West Nile Virus Risk

We conducted a cross-sectional, household survey in Oakville, Ontario, where an outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) in 2002 led to an unprecedented number of cases of meningitis and encephalitis. Practicing >2 personal protective behavior traits reduced the risk for WNV infection by half.

Indicators of human health in ecosystems: what do we measure?

Increasingly, scientists are being called upon to assist in the development of indicators for monitoring ecosystem health. For human health indicators, they may draw on environmental exposure, human morbidity/mortality or well-being and sustainability approaches. To improve the rigour of indicators, we propose six scientific criteria for indicator selection: (1) data availability, suitability and representativeness (of populations), (2) indicator validity (face, construct, predictive and convergent) and reliability; (3) indicator responsiveness to change; (4) indicator desegregation capability (across personal and community characteristics); (5) indicator comparability (across populations and jurisdictions); and (6) indicator representativeness (across important dimensions of concern). We comment on our current capacity to adhere to such criteria with examples of measures of environmental exposure, human health and sustainability. We recognize the considerable work still required on documenting environment-human health relationships and on monitoring potential indicators in similar ways over time. Yet we argue that such work is essential in order for science to inform policy decisions which affect the health of ecosystems and human health.

Systematic review of surveillance systems for emerging zoonoses.

Evaluations of emerging zoonoses surveillance systems are rarely found in the published literature, making it difficult for decision-makers to choose the best surveillance initiatives.

Fish Consumption by Vietnamese Women Immigrants: A Comparison of Methods

In this study, the measurement properties of an interview-administered fish consumption frequency questionnaire, used with a pilot study of 20 Vietnamese immigrant women, were described. Reproducibility across two summer interviews and one winter interview for estimates of seasonal and yearly intake of Great Lakes fish was moderate (intraclass correlation coefficients: .51-.61). Detailed questioning, by species, resulted in higher estimates of mean overall consumption (44.6-57.8 meals/y) than did asking about any fresh-water fish consumed (33.5-46.1; differences 5.1-15.7). Estimates based on the fish consumption frequency questionnaire (i.e., 6.2+/-2.0 meals per winter season) were comparable with those based on extrapolation from a 1-mo calendar (5.8+/-5.6); however, both estimates of consumption were far less than a weighed record (29.1+/-22.2). The results of this study suggest that measurement variation in fish consumption estimates should be detailed in research reports and should be discussed with respect to risk assessments.