Simon Cousens MA DipMathStats

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Background

Simon Cousens is a mathematician/statistician by training. Before joining the School in 1985 he worked as a school teacher and as a statistician at the UK Department of Energy.

Teaching

He contributes to statistics and epidemiology teaching throughout the academic year and is co-organizer of the study unit Statistical Methods in Epidemiology and the short course Causal Inference in Epidemiology.

Research

Simon is a member of the DfID funded Research Programme Consortium "Towards 4+5", which is focused on improving maternal, neonatal and child survival and health, the targets of Millenium Development Goals 4 and 5. Current field research includes work on neonatal survival in Pakistan and Ethiopia, and on childhood malaria in Burkina Faso. He is also involved in work to improve global estimates of cause-specific neonatal mortality. In addition, since 1986 Simon has been involved in research into Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK, working closely with the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh since its inception in 1990. Methodological work includes research into causal inference in epidemiology and into improving approaches to quantifying uncertainty in disease burden estimates.

Selected publications

• Cousens, S.; Smith, P. G.; Ward, H.; Everington, D.; Knight, R. S.; Zeidler, M.; Stewart, G.; Smith-Bathgate, E. A.; MacLeod, M. A.; MacKenzie, J.; Will, R. G. Geographical distribution of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Great Britain, 1994-2000 Lancet, 2001; 357(9261):1002-7
• Darmstadt, G.L.; Bhutta, Z.A.; Cousens, S.; Adam, T.; Walker, N.; de Bernis, L.; Lancet Neonatal Survival Steering Team, .; Evidence-based, cost-effective interventions: how many newborn babies can we save? Lancet, 2005; 365(9463):977-88
• Lawn, J. E.; Wilczynska-Ketende, K.; Cousens, S. N. Estimating the causes of 4 million neonatal deaths in the year 2000 International Journal of Epidemiology, 2006; 35(3):706-718
• Kirwan, J.F.; Cousens, S.; Venter, L.; Cook, C.; Stulting, A.; Roux, P.; Murdoch, I. Effect of beta radiation on success of glaucoma drainage surgery in South Africa: randomised controlled trial British Medical Journal, 2006; 333(7575):942-994A
• Diallo, D. A.; Cousens, S. N.; Cuzin-Ouattara, N.; Nebie, I.; Ilboudo-Sanogo, E.; Esposito, F. Child mortality in a West African population protected with insecticide-treated curtains for a period of up to 6 years Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2004; 82(2):85-91
• Diallo, D.A.; Sutherland, C.; Nebie, I.; Konate, A.T.; Ord, R.; Pota, H.; Roper, C.; Ilboudo-Sanogo, E.; Greenwood, B.M.; Cousens, S.N.; Sustained use of insecticide-treated curtains is not associated with greater circulation of drug-resistant malaria parasites, or with higher risk of treatment failure among children with uncomplicated malaria in Burkina Faso. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2007; 76(2):237-44
• Bhutta, Z.A.; Ahmed, T.; Black, R.E.; Cousens, S.; Dewey, K.; Giugliani, E.; Haider, B.A.; Kirkwood, B.; Morris, S.S.; Sachdev, H.P.S.; Shekar, M. Maternal and Child Undernutrition 3 - What works? Interventions for maternal and child undernutrition and survival Lancet, 2008; 371(9610):417-440

Full publications listing (since 2001)