The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50049

Judy Henry, MS, Texas Department of Health, Environmental Epidemiology, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, TX 78756, 512-458-7269, judy.henry@tdh.state.tx.us

In December 1994, a 42 year-old El Paso, Texas resident with multiple sclerosis (MS) contacted the Texas Department of Health (TDH) to report an apparent “cluster” of MS cases among people who spent their childhoods in the Kern Place-Mission Hills area of El Paso. The majority of the individuals identified with MS attended the local public elementary school and one attended private school. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine if the cohort of students who attended the local public elementary school had an increased prevalence of MS as compared with national prevalence estimates. Fourteen cases of definite and probable MS were identified in the cohort. Since no registry exists for MS, TDH used published prevalence and incidence estimates based on national surveys and studies conducted in specific geographic areas as comparisons to determine if there was an excess of disease. Depending on the comparison rate used, there was either no excess of MS in the cohort or up to a three-fold excess.

This presentation will provide an overview of the MS cluster investigation as well as the difficulties encountered in interpreting the results and presenting them in a comprehensive and understandable manner. Discussion will also focus on some of the obstacles faced in conducting the study such as a lack of trust in government, the lack of perceived benefit for certain communities and the need for timely and state- or regional-specific MS prevalence estimates for use in epidemiological investigations.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Identify three reasons why communicating scientific research to community members is difficult;
• Identify three reasons why professional scientists’ credibility is questioned by community members; and
• Discuss methods to ensure participation of affected communities in the research process.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Community Participation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.