Abstract
Six statistical methods for monitoring of populations are reviewed with special reference to surveillance of congenital malformations. Their characteristics are compared; their relative efficiencies are assessed through both analytical and numerical comparisons. The cumulative sum technique appears to be convenient from most points of view; particular cases in which other methods may be preferred are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bailar J.C. and Ederer F. (1964): Significance factors for the ratio of a Poisson variable to its expectation. - Biometrics 20: 639–643.
Banister P. (1970) Congenital malformations; preliminary report of an investigation of reduction deformities of the limbs, triggered by a pilot surveillance system. - Can. Med. Assoc. J. 103: 466–472.
Banister P. (1971): Evaluation of vital record usage for congenital anomaly surveillance. In Hook E.B., Janerich D.T., and Porter I.H., editors, Monitoring, Birth defects and environment. The problem of surveillance, pp. 119–131. - Academic Press, New York and London.
Barbujani G. and Calzolari E. (1984): Comparison of two statistical techniques for the surveillance of birth defects through a Monte Carlo simulation.- Stat. Med. 3: 239–247.
Barbujani G. and Calzolari E. (1985): Performance of three techniques for the surveillance of congenital malformations. A computer simulation test. In De Wals P., Weatherall J.A.C., Lechat F., editors, Registration of congenital anomalies in Eurocat centres, 1979–1983, pp. 225–232. Cabay, Louvain.
Barbujani G., Ceccherini I., Russo A. (1986): Surveillance of birth defects: the multicommunity Sets technique tested by computer simulation. -Eur. J. Epidem., 2: 52–62.
Barrai J. (1975): Problems in the estimation of mutation rates and in the detection of induced mutations in man. - Mut. Res. 33: 37–44.
Barrai I. (1977): Spontaneous mutation in man. -Abhand. Akad. Wissensch. DDR 9: 139–152.
Batty M. and Sammons R. (1978): On searching for the most informative spatial pattern. - Environment and Planning, series A 10: 747–779.
Bjerkedal T. and Bakketeig L.S. (1975): Surveillance of congenital malformations and other conditions of the newborn. - Int. J. Epidem. 4: 31–36.
Box G.E.P. and Jenkins G.M. (1970): Time series analysis. Forecasting and control. Holden Day, San Francisco.
Brocken P.L. and Kemperman J.H.B. (1980): Statistical recognition of trends in health monitoring systems. - Meth. Inform. Med. 19: 106–112.
Buffler P.A. and Aase J.M. (1982): Genetic risks and environmental surveillance: epidemiological aspects of monitoring industrial populations for environmental mutagens. - J. Occup. Med. 24: 305–314.
Chen R. (1978): A surveillance system for congenital malformations. - J. Amer. Stat. Ass. 73: 323–327.
Chen R. (1979): Statistical techniques in birth defects surveillance systems. - Contr. Epidem. Biostatist., vol. 1., pp. 184–189. Karger, Basel.
Chen R. (1983): A monitoring system for chronic diseases. Determining the parameters involved. -Meth. Inform. Med. 22: 149–150.
Chen R. (1985): The relative efficiency of the Sets and a Cusurn technique in monitoring the rate of a rare event. Unpublished manuscript.
Chen R., Mantel N., Connelly R.R. (1985): Confirmation of disease monitoring results and disease clustering. - In Reichertz P.L., Lindberg D.A.B., editors, Lecture notes in Medical informatics, pp. 155–167. Springer, Berlin.
Chen R., Mantel N., Connelly R.R., IsacsonP. (1982): A monitoring system for chronic diseases. -Meth. Inform. Med. 21: 86–90.
Chen R., Mantel N. and Klingberg M. (1984): A study of three techniques for time-space clustering in Hodgkin's disease. - Stat. Med. 3: 173–184.
Chen R., McDowall M., Terzian E., Weatherall J.A.C. (1983): Eurocat guide to monitoring methods for malformation registers. EEC Concerted Action Project Eurocat, Bruxelles.
Chung C.S., Ching G.H.S. and Morton N.E. (1974): A genetic study of cleft lip and palate in Hawaii. II. Complex segregation analysis and genetic risk. -Amer. J. Hum. Genet. 26: 177–188.
Chug C.S. and Landry R.M. (1984): The genetic epidemiology of congenital dislocation of the hip. In Chakravarti A., editor, Human population genetics, The Pittsburgh symposium, pp. 143–161. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Chung C.S., Rao D.C. and Ching G.H.S. (1980): Population and family studies of cleft lip and palate. In Melnick M., Bixter D. and Shields E.D., editors, Etiology of cleft lip and palate, pp. 325–352. Alan R. Liss, New York.
Crow J.F. (1971): Human population monitoring. In Hollaender A., editor, Chemical mutagens: Principles and methods for their detection. Vol. 2, pp. 591–605. Plenum Press, New York.
Czeizel A. (1976): Surveillance of congenital anomalies in Hungary. - Acta Paediat. Acad. Sci. Hung. 17: 123–134.
David F.N. and Barton D.E. (1966): Two space-time interaction tests for epidemicity. - Brit. J. Prev. Soc. Med. 20: 44–48.
Ederer F., Myers M. and Mantel N. (1964): A statistical problem in space and time: do leukemia cases come in clusters? - Biometrics 20: 626–638,
Edmonds L.D., Layde P.M., James L.M., Flynt J.W., Erickson J.D. and Oakley G.P. (1981): Congenital malformations surveillance: two American systems.- Int. J. Epidemiol. 10: 247–252.
Ericson A., Kallen B. and Winberg J. (1977): Surveillance of malformations at birth: a comparison of two record systems run in parallel. - Int. J. Epidemiol. 6: 35–41.
Ewan W.D. and Kemp K.W. (1960): Sampling inspection of continuous processes with no autocorrelation between successive results. - Biometrika 47: 363–380.
Field B. (1977): Surveillance of malformations in Sydney in 1976. - Med. J. Aust. 2: 797–799.
Flynt J.W. (1976): Techniques for assessing teratogenic effects: epidemiology. - Environmental Health Perspectives 18: 117–123.
Flynt J.W., Ebbin A.J., Oakley G.P., Falek A., Heath C.W. (1971): Metropolitan Atlanta congenital defects program. In Hook E.B., Janerich D.T. and Porter I.H., editors, Monitoring, birth defects and environment. The problem of surveillance. pp. 155–158, Academic Press, New York.
Flynt J.W., and Hay S. (1979): International clearinghouse for birth defects monitoring systems. -Contr. Epidem. Biostatist., vol. 1, pp. 44–52, Karger, Basel.
Fraser D.W. (1983): Clustering of disease in population units: an, exact test and its asymptotic version. - Amer. J. Epidemiol. 118: 732–739.
Gallus G., Mandelli C., Marchi M., Radaelli G. (1986): On surveillance methods for congenital malformations. - Stat. Med. 5: 565–572.
Healy M.J.R. (1983): A simple method for monitoring routine statistics. - The Statistician 32: 347–349.
Hill G.B., Spicer C.C., Weatherall J.A.C. (1968): The computer surveillance of congenital malformations.- Br. Med. Bull. 24: 215–218.
Ire J.D. (1981): An evaluation of epidemiological methods of monitoring human populations for increased genetic risk. - Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 1: 84–89.
Kallen B. and Winberg J. (1968): Swedish register of congenital malformations. Experience with two years of continuous registration with special reference to multiple malformations - Pediatrics 41: 765–776.
Kalter H. (1975): Some relations between teratogens and mutagens. - Mut. Res. 33: 29–36.
Kalter H. and Warkany J. (1983): Congenital malformations. Etiologic Factors and their role in prevention. - N. Engl. J. Med. 308: 424–431 (1st part) and 308: 491–497 (2nd part).
Kenett R. and Pollak M. (1983): On sequential detection of a shift in the probability of a rare event. - J. Amer. Stat. Ass. 78: 389–395.
Klemetti A. and Saxen L. (1970): The finnish register of congenital malformations. Organization and six years of experience. - Natl. Board of Health, Helsinki.
Klingberg M.A., Chen R., Chemke J. and Levin S. (1971): An epidemiological study of congenital malformations among different ethnic and social groups in Israel. - Dev. Med. Child. Neurol. 13: 735–745.
Knox G. (1963): Detection of lox intensity epidemicity. Application to cleft lip and palate. - Brit. J. Prev. Soc. Med. 17: 121–127.
Knox G. (1964): Epidemiology of childhood leukemia in Northumberland and Durham. - Brit. J. Prev. Soc. Med. 18: 17–24.
Knox G. and Lancashire R. (1982): Detection of minimal epidemics. - Stat. Med. 1: 183–189.
Kucera J. (1977): Population teratology: method and a new discipline. - Rev. Czech. Med. 23: 228–235.
Lalouel J.M., Morton N.E. and Jackson J. (1979): Neural tube malformations: complex segregation analysis and calculation of recurrence risk. - J. Med. Genet. 16: 8–13.
Leck I. (1977): Correlations of malformation frequency with environmental and genetic-attributes in man. In Wilson J.G., Fraser F.C., editors, Handbook of teratology. Vol. 3, pp. 243–324. Plenum Press, New York.
Lenz W. (1962): Thalidomide and congenital abnormalities.- Lancet I: 45.
Lloyd S. and Roberts C.J. (1973): A test for space clustering and its application to congenital limb defects in Cardiff. - Brit. J. Prev. Soc. Med. 27: 188–191.
Mantel N. (1967): The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach. - Cancer Research 27: 209–220.
Milhain S. (1963): Congenital malformation surveillance system based on vital records. - Public Health Reports 78: 448–452.
Milham S. (1971): Experience with malformation surveillance. In Hook E.B., Janerich D.T. and Porter I.H., editors, Monitoring, birth defects and environment. The problem of surveillance. pp. 137–142, Academic Press, New York and London.
Miller J.R. (1977): Birth defects monitoring systems: an overview. - Congenital Anomalies 17: 1–12.
Tiller J.R. and Lowry R.B. (1977): Birth defects registries and surveillance. In Wilson J.C. and Fraser F.C., editors, Handbook of teratology. Vol. 3, pp. 227–242, Plenum, New York.
Morton N.E. (1982): Outline of genetic epidemiology pp. 207–216 and 242–247. Karger, Basel.
Morton N.E. (1983): Surveillance. In Morton N.E., Rao D.C., Lalouel J.M., Methods in genetic epidemiology, pp. 207–212. Karger, Basel.
Morton N.E. and Lindsten J. (1976): Surveillance of Down's syndrome as a paradigm of population monitoring. - Hum. Hered. 26: 360–371.
Naus J.I. (1965): The distribution of the size of the maximum cluster of points on a line. - J. Amer. Stat. Ass. 60: 532–538.
Ohno Y., Aoki K. and Aoki N. (1979): A test of significance for geographic clusters of disease. -Int. J. Epidemiol. 8: 273–281.
Page E.S. (1954): Continuous inspection schemes. -Biometrika 41: 100–115.
Page E.S. (1955): Control charts with warning lines. - Biometrika 42: 243–257.
Page E.S. (1961): Cumulative sum charts. - Technometrics 3: 1–9.
Schleisselman J.J. (1982): Case-control studies. Design, conduct and analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Saxen L. (1974): Population surveillance for birth defects. In Motulsky A.G. and Lenz W., editors, Birth defects: Fourth International Conference. Excerpta Medica, Amsterdam.
Saxen L., Klemetti A. and Haro A.S. (1974): A matched pair register for studies of selected congenital defects. - Am. J. Epidem. 100: 297–306.
Simons M.J., Grimson R.C. and Yuan Y.C. (1983): Clustering of rare events. - Biometrics 39: 193–205.
Spicer C.C. (1967): Some empirical studies in epidemiology.- Proc. 5th Berkeley Symposium on Math. Stat. and Probab. 4: 207–215.
Trimble B.K. and Doughty J.H. (1974): The amount of hereditary disease in human populations. - Ann. Hum. Genet. 38: 199–212.
Wald N. (1947): Sequential analysis. Wiley, New York.
Wallenstein S. (1980): A test for detection of clustering over time. - Amer. J. Epidem. 111: 367–372.
Weatherall J.A.C. and Haskey J.C. (1976): Surveillance of malformations. - Br. Med. Bull. 32: 39–44.
Weatherall J.A.C., Vlietinck R.F., Van den Berghe H. (1979): EEC Concerted Action Project — European congenital anomalies and twins (Eurocat). - Acta Genet. Med. Gemellol. 28: 377–379.
Wilson J.G. (1972): Environmental effects on development — Teratology. In Assali N.S., editor, Pathophysiology of gestation. Vol. 2, pp. 269–320, Academic Press, New York.
Wilson J.G. (1977): Embryotoxicity of drugs in man. In Wilson J.G., Fraser F.C., editors, Handbook of teratology. Vol. 1, pp. 309–356, Plenum Press, New York.
Woodward R.H., Goldsmith P.L. (1964): Cumulative sum techniques. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.
Yasuda N. (1984): A surveillance system for metabolic disorders in Japan. - Hum. Hered. 34: 321–327.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Barbujani, G. A review of statistical methods for continuous monitoring of malformation frequencies. Eur J Epidemiol 3, 67–77 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00145075
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00145075