In particular, we use two popular measures of network connectivity: the incidence rate and the wiring ratio.
*In the IPCI network: cervicitis The estimated incidence of chlamydia diagnoses was higher in the regional networks around Amsterdam than in the nationwide networks.
Data were not available from all networks for every diagnosis, except for pneumonia, but the incidences of the Intego network, the Transition project and the Weekly Returns Service are within the same range.
Thus, we would compare the observed network to a simulated network with the same network characteristics, including the same overall rate of smoking prevalence, but with the incidence of smoking randomly distributed across the network [ 59].
To study the clustering of smoking behaviour, we will compare the observed network at each data collection point to a simulated network with the same network characteristics, including the same overall rate of smoking prevalence, but with the incidence of smoking randomly distributed across the network [ 59].
Nevertheless, we observed similar trends in the incidence of chlamydia diagnoses in all networks and findings were in line with earlier reports.
Our findings in the nationwide networks (an incidence of 300 and 500 per 100,000 in young men and women) indicate that about 20% of the total incident chlamydia cases in that age group is diagnosed by GPs.
In Muslim Africa, rates of HIV infection are typically lower than in other regions, probably due to the closed nature of polygamous sexual networks, lower incidence of premarital sex, and much higher rates of male circumcision [ 67]. 'Widow cleansing' (a brother having perceived sexual access to his deceased brother's widow) is practiced in some Mozambican ethnic groups [ 68].
To obtain more insight into occurrence and reporting of chlamydia diagnoses in GP practice, we compared the incidence of chlamydia diagnoses in the GP network studied in ref 13 with another nationwide and two regional networks.
In 1998, van den Akker et al 32 estimated the 1 year incidence of multimorbidity in patients from a network of family practices in the Netherlands.
