Lucy Carpenter: Annual Report 2001-2002

Lucy Carpenter (Faculty Fellow) this year started work on a new research topic studying the long-term health of members of the armed forces who took part in chemical warfare agent trials in the UK at Porton Down. The main aim of this is to compare death rates (and cancer registrations) in around 20,000 members of the armed forces, who took part in trials in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, with rates in members who did not. A pilot study is now underway evaluating the feasibility of this research project. Alongside this, a health survey will also be carried out of surviving veterans who had taken part in trials in the past. This work is collaborative, primarily with Dr Kate Venables here in Oxford, with funding via the Medical Research Council. In addition to the above, she continued work investigating associations between cancer and occupation with Sir David Cox and colleagues at the Leukaemia Research Fund and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This is based on the analysis of over 1 million cancer registrations in adults in England and Wales 1971-1990. A final report on this has now been submitted for publication together with a website providing access to over 500 graphical plots resulting from these analyses. During her sabbatical period in Hilary term in New Zealand she gave seminars on this topic in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Brisbane. She has now largely completed her contribution to research based in rural Uganda evaluating population-based methods for reducing rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The main method being evaluated is a behavioural change programme - either alone, or in combination with improved management of other STIs. This study was used to illustrate the challenges associated with the design and implementation of community randomised trials at the symposium on randomised controlled trials in the social sciences held in College in June.

Publications

(with A Kamali, M Payne, S Kiwuuwa, P Kintu, J Nakiyingi, J Kinsman, N Nalweyiso, M Quigley, J Kengeya-Kayondo and J A G Whitworth). 'Independent Effects of Reported Sexually Transmitted Infections and Sexual Behavior on HIV-1 Prevalence among Adult Women, Men and Teenagers in Rural Uganda', Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 29, 2002.