Nearly 100 researchers gathered in Chengdu City, China, in May for an advanced epidemiology and biostatistics workshop led by the Yale School of Public Health.
Yale professors Tongzhang Zheng, D.Sc., Brian Leaderer, Ph.D., Theodore Holford, Ph.D., and Yawei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., worked with Dr. Yinlong Jin, director general of the Chinese National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, to implement the intensive training program for scientists from research institutes and universities throughout the country.
China is experiencing growing health problems as the result of its rapid transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Severe air pollution and lifestyle factors, such as heavy tobacco use and changes in diet, along with an aging population, have all contributed to alarming rates of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and obesity.
“Researchers in China need comprehensive training in epidemiology, including descriptive and analytical epidemiology, as well as understanding the interpretation of the study results,” says Zheng, head of the division of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale.
The workshop is part of Yale’s ongoing efforts to help meet the urgent need in China for public health professionals. This work is partly supported by a Fogarty Air Pollution Training Grant and a Fogarty Cancer Training Grant at YSPH. The Yale researchers are currently working with China’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and China’s National Cancer Center to establish several mentored research programs by partnering with the International Prevention Research Institute .These research programs include a birth cohort study in eight Chinese cities, a cohort study of 300,000 adults in Daqing City and a cohort study of nickel production and human health.
These studies will provide platforms to train generations of Chinese scientists in public health and provide data to evaluate environmental factors, genes and gene-environment interaction in the risk of human diseases.