Paul Hewson | Plymouth University (original) (raw)

Papers by Paul Hewson

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2012

To compare risk of fatal injury in elderly road users (drivers, passengers, pedestrians) with tha... more To compare risk of fatal injury in elderly road users (drivers, passengers, pedestrians) with that of younger age groups and to assess the contribution of elderly road users to the number of reported fatalities in the population. Fatality age was categorized as 21 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, or 70 and older, and road user was categorized as driver, passenger, or pedestrian. Estimated number of trips made by each age group was used to adjust for exposure and to measure individual risk. Fatalities recorded in Britain between 1989 and 2009. Population-wide fatal injury counts in Britain. Age of fatally injured drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Estimated number of trips made per year by drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Risk of fatal injury, but not fatality numbers in the population, were higher for older adult (≥ 70) drivers than for younger age groups. Risk of fatal injury was also high for older adult passengers and pedestrians, who represented the majority of older adult fatalities. Previous emphasis on driver impairment in older age has unduly focussed attention on elderly drivers, who represent a minority of all driver fatalities. Older adults represent a much larger proportion of passenger and pedestrian fatalities. Additional policy schemes and initiatives should be targeted at safeguarding older adult passengers and making the road environment safer for elderly pedestrians.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2014

Background: Young and elderly drivers are reported to have markedly greater crash rates than driv... more Background: Young and elderly drivers are reported to have markedly greater crash rates than drivers of other ages, but they travel less frequently and represent a minority of road users. Consequently, many crashes involving young or elderly drivers also involve drivers of middle age ranges who travel more frequently.

Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 2007

older people in rural area (OPeRA) research …, 2006

International Journal of Sports …, 2007

This essay examines the current developments of mapping disease using statistical methods. Regres... more This essay examines the current developments of mapping disease using statistical methods. Regression models for count data allowing for over-dispersion are discussed in this essay. The statistical methods discussed are Multivariate Poisson gamma models (MPG), conditional autoregressive models (CAR) and intrinsic conditional autoregressive models (ICAR).

Page 1. Bayesian Methods for Measuring Acute Malnourishment David Kwamena Mensah (davidkwamena@ai... more Page 1. Bayesian Methods for Measuring Acute Malnourishment David Kwamena Mensah (davidkwamena@aims.ac.za) African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Supervised by: Prof. ... David Kwamena Mensah, 20 May 2010 i Page 4. Contents Abstract i ...

BMC public health, 2004

Background: Worldwide, injuries from road traffic collisions are a rapidly growing problem in ter... more Background: Worldwide, injuries from road traffic collisions are a rapidly growing problem in terms of morbidity and mortality. The UK has amongst the worst records in Europe with regard to child pedestrian safety. A traditional view holds that resources should be directed towards training child pedestrians. In order to reduce socio-economic differentials in child pedestrian casualty rates it is suggested that these should be directed at deprived children. This paper seeks to question whether analysis of extant routinely collected data supports this view.

A range of different approaches have been suggested for the multivariate modelling of the geograp... more A range of different approaches have been suggested for the multivariate modelling of the geographical distribution of different but potentially related diseases. We suggest an addition to these methods which incorporates a discrete mixture of latent factors, as opposed to using CAR or MCAR random effect formulations. Our proposal provides for a potentially richer range of dependency structures than those encompassed in previously used models in that it is capable of representing an enhanced range of correlation structures between diseases at the same time as implicitly allowing for less restrictive spatial correlation structures between geographical units. We illustrate results of using the model on data taken from cancer registries on four carcinomas in some 300 UK geographical areas.

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics

The potential of cycle helmets to reduce head injury remains controversial. Although several case... more The potential of cycle helmets to reduce head injury remains controversial. Although several case-control studies have been published, ecological analyses of head injury remain commonplace, presumably because of the availability of data and policy-makers’ preference for ‘whole population’ studies. Given that such population-level analysis will be conducted, this paper models the odds ratio between different road-user groups over time. We use a Bayesian implementation of a vector generalized additive model in order to examine the odds ratio for head injury when comparing male cyclists with female cyclists, male pedestrians with male cyclists, and female pedestrians with female cyclists over a period when helmet-wearing rates were thought to diverge by gender.