title: Detection and assessment of clusters of disease: an application to nuclear power plant facilities and childhood leukaemia in Sweden.
abstract: We review some recent statistical methods for examining geographic patterns of disease incidence for the presence of clusters. General methods search for clusters throughout the study area and then assess the statistical significance of any clusters detected. Focused methods check for elevated incidence rates close to prespecified locations of putative sources of hazard. We apply the methods to leukaemia incidence data for children aged 0-15 years in Sweden (1980-1990), particularly in reference to locations of nuclear power facilities. Unlike some other studies, notably in the United Kingdom, we do not find any significant clusters.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455-0392.
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Turnbull
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hjalmars
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Andersson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007953:Leukemia, Radiation-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011210:Power Plants; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013029:Space-Time Clustering; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology