Speaker: Dr Radoslaw Panczak, Post-doctoral Fellow, Eosinophilic Esophagitis Activity Index Study Group, University of Bern and University of Zurich The Switzerland

Date: October 18, 2013 (Friday)

Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm

Venue: Seminar Room 5, LG1/F, Laboratory Block, Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Abstract:

The seminar will cover two topics investigating spatial and epidemiological studies of mortality in Switzerland, conducted within the framework of the Swiss National Cohort (SNC, http://www.swissnationalcohort.ch), a long-term, census-based, multipurpose cohort and research platform.

The first part of the seminar will describe the methodology behind the development and validation of the Swiss neighbourhood index of socioeconomic position (Swiss-SEP). Swiss-SEP is the area-based measure of SEP created for 1.3 million of residential neighbourhoods and tailored for epidemiological research. It has been constructed using novel approach to define the neighbourhood boundaries on the basis of road network connectivity and Swiss census 2000 data characterizing residential households. The validation of the index with several independent income measures from the Swiss Household Panel, as well as associations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality using the SNC data, will be presented.

The second part of the seminar will present the results of the project tracking patterns of mortality among residents of tall buildings in Switzerland. Using data on 1.5 million people living in buildings with four or more floors and 142,390 deaths recorded during 11.4 million person-years of follow-up, the associations of floor of residence with all-cause and cause-specific mortality will be presented.