Articles

Erratum to: Evolution of the “fourth stage” of epidemiologic transition in people aged 80 years and over: population-based cohort study using electronic health records

Authors: Nisha C. Hazra and Martin Gulliford

National mortality burden due to communicable, non-communicable, and other diseases in Ethiopia, 1990–2015: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Ethiopia lacks a complete vital registration system that would assist in measuring disease burden and risk factors. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015) estim...

Authors: Awoke Misganaw, Tilahun N. Haregu, Kebede Deribe, Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Amare Deribew, Yohannes Adama Melaku, Azmeraw T. Amare, Semaw Ferede Abera, Molla Gedefaw, Muluken Dessalegn, Yihunie Lakew, Tolesa Bekele, Mesoud Mohammed, Biruck Desalegn Yirsaw, Solomon Abrha Damtew, Kristopher J. Krohn…

National disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 257 diseases and injuries in Ethiopia, 1990–2015: findings from the global burden of disease study 2015

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) provide a summary measure of health and can be a critical input to guide health systems, investments, and priority-setting in Ethiopia. We aimed to determine the leading ...

Authors: Awoke Misganaw, Yohannes Adama Melaku, Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Amare Deribew, Kebede Deribe, Semaw Ferede Abera, Muluken Dessalegn, Yihunie Lakew, Tolesa Bekele, Tilahun N. Haregu, Azmeraw T. Amare, Molla Gedefaw, Mesoud Mohammed, Biruck Desalegn Yirsaw, Solomon Abrha Damtew, Tom Achoki…

Tuberculosis and HIV are the leading causes of adult death in northwest Ethiopia: evidence from verbal autopsy data of Dabat health and demographic surveillance system, 2007–2013

Reliable data on causes of death form the basis for building evidence on health policy, planning, monitoring, and evaluation. In Ethiopia, the majority of deaths occur at home and civil registration systems ar...

Authors: Yigzaw Kebede, Gashaw Andargie, Abebaw Gebeyehu, Tadesse Awoke, Mezgebu Yitayal, Solomon Mekonnen, Mamo Wubshet, Temesgen Azmeraw, Yihunie Lakew and Kassahun Alemu

On the plausibility of socioeconomic mortality estimates derived from linked data: a demographic approach

Reliable estimates of mortality according to socioeconomic status play a crucial role in informing the policy debate about social inequality, social cohesion, and exclusion as well as about the reform of pensi...

Authors: Mathias Lerch, Adrian Spoerri, Domantas Jasilionis and Francisco Viciana Fernandèz

Mortality trends in Australian Aboriginal peoples and New Zealand Māori

The health status of Indigenous populations of Australia and New Zealand (NZ) Māori manifests as life expectancies substantially lower than the total population. Accurate assessment of time trends in mortality...

Authors: Bronwen Phillips, John Daniels, Alistair Woodward, Tony Blakely, Richard Taylor and Stephen Morrell

Choice of relative or cause-specific approach to cancer survival analysis impacts estimates differentially by cancer type, population, and application: evidence from a Canadian population-based cohort study

Cause-specific (CS) and net survival in a relative survival framework (RS) are two of the most common methods for estimating cancer survival. In this paper, we assess the differences in results produced by two...

Authors: Diana R. Withrow, Jason D. Pole, E. Diane Nishri, Michael Tjepkema and Loraine D. Marrett

Comparing trends in mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer in the United Kingdom, 1983–2013: joinpoint regression analysis

We aimed to study the time trends underlying a change from cardiovascular disease (CVD) to cancer as the most common cause of age-standardized mortality in the UK between 1983 and 2013.

Authors: Lauren Wilson, Prachi Bhatnagar and Nick Townsend

Trend and causes of adult mortality in Kersa health and demographic surveillance system (Kersa HDSS), eastern Ethiopia: verbal autopsy method

The health problems of adults have been neglected in many developing countries, yet many studies in these countries show high rates of premature mortality in adults. Measuring adult mortality and its cause thr...

Authors: Wondimye Ashenafi, Frehywot Eshetu, Nega Assefa, Lemessa Oljira, Melkamu Dedefo, Desalew Zelalem, Negga Baraki and Melake Demena

Impact of rural family physician program on child mortality rates in Iran: a time-series study

The rural family physician program and social protection scheme were started in Iran about 10 years ago, and no comprehensive study has been carried out to investigate the effects of this program on mortality-...

Authors: Shohreh Naderimagham, Hamidreza Jamshidi, Alireza Khajavi, Farhad Pishgar, Ali Ardam, Bagher Larijani, Zohreh Mahmoudi, Alireza Jeddian, Hamid Reza Bahrami-Taghanaki and Farshad Farzadfar

Quantifying the global contribution of alcohol consumption to cardiomyopathy

The global impact of alcohol consumption on deaths due to cardiomyopathy (CM) has not been quantified to date, even though CM contains a subcategory for alcoholic CM with an effect of heavy drinking over time ...

Authors: Jakob Manthey, Sameer Imtiaz, Maria Neufeld, Margaret Rylett and Jürgen Rehm

Multiple cause-of-death data among people with AIDS in Italy: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Multiple cause-of-death (MCOD) data allow analyzing the contribution to mortality of conditions reported on the death certificate that are not selected as the underlying cause of death. Using MCOD data, this s...

Authors: Enrico Grande, Antonella Zucchetto, Barbara Suligoi, Francesco Grippo, Marilena Pappagallo, Saverio Virdone, Laura Camoni, Martina Taborelli, Vincenza Regine, Diego Serraino and Luisa Frova

Evolution of the “fourth stage” of epidemiologic transition in people aged 80 years and over: population-based cohort study using electronic health records

In the “fourth stage” of epidemiological transition, the distribution of non-communicable diseases is expected to shift to more advanced ages, but age-specific changes beyond 80 years of age have not been repo...

Authors: Nisha C. Hazra and Martin Gulliford

Adult mortality of diseases and injuries attributable to selected metabolic, lifestyle, environmental, and infectious risk factors in Taiwan: a comparative risk assessment

To facilitate priority-setting in health policymaking, we compiled the best available information to estimate the adult mortality (>30 years) burden attributable to 13 metabolic, lifestyle, infectious, and env...

Authors: Wei-Cheng Lo, Chu-Chang Ku, Shu-Ti Chiou, Chang-Chuan Chan, Chi‐Ling Chen, Mei-Shu Lai and Hsien-Ho Lin

Self-reported general health, physical distress, mental distress, and activity limitation by US county, 1995-2012

Metrics based on self-reports of health status have been proposed for tracking population health and making comparisons among different populations. While these metrics have been used in the US to explore disp...

Authors: Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Johan P. Mackenbach, Frank J. van Lenthe and Ali H. Mokdad

Changing ethnic inequalities in mortality in New Zealand over 30 years: linked cohort studies with 68.9 million person-years of follow-up

Internationally, ethnic inequalities in mortality within countries are increasingly recognized as a public health concern. But few countries have data to monitor such inequalities. We aimed to provide a detail...

Authors: George Disney, Andrea Teng, June Atkinson, Nick Wilson and Tony Blakely

An analysis of secular trends in method-specific suicides in Japan, 1950–1975

In Japan, a dramatic rise in suicide rates was observed in the 1950s, especially among the younger population, and then the rate decreased rapidly again in the 1960s. The aim of this study was to assess secula...

Authors: Eiji Yoshioka, Yasuaki Saijo and Ichiro Kawachi

Estimating incidence and prevalence rates of chronic diseases using disease modeling

Morbidity estimates between different GP registration networks show large, unexplained variations. This research explores the potential of modeling differences between networks in distinguishing new (incident)...

Authors: Hendrike C. Boshuizen, Marinus J. J. C. Poos, Marjan van den Akker, Kees van Boven, Joke C. Korevaar, Margot W. M. de Waal, Marion C. J. Biermans and Nancy Hoeymans

Prevalence and risk factors for anemia severity and type in Malawian men and women: urban and rural differences

The global burden of anemia is large especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV is common and lifestyles are changing rapidly with urbanization. The effects of these changes are unknown. Studies of anemia usu...

Authors: Aishatu L. Adamu, Amelia Crampin, Ndoliwe Kayuni, Alemayehu Amberbir, Olivier Koole, Amos Phiri, Moffat Nyirenda and Paul Fine

Assessing the psychometric and ecometric properties of neighborhood scales using adolescent survey data from urban and rural Scotland

Despite the well-established need for specific measurement instruments to examine the relationship between neighborhood conditions and adolescent well-being outcomes, few studies have developed scales to measu...

Authors: Gina Martin, Joanna Inchley, Gerry Humphris and Candace Currie

Assessment of pre-injury health-related quality of life: a systematic review

Insight into the change from pre- to post-injury health-related quality of life (HRQL) of trauma patients is important to derive estimates of the impact of injury on HRQL. Prospectively collected pre-injury HR...

Authors: Annemieke C. Scholten, Juanita A. Haagsma, Ewout W. Steyerberg, Ed F. van Beeck and Suzanne Polinder

Evidence-based design recommendations for prevalence studies on multimorbidity: improving comparability of estimates

In aging populations, multimorbidity causes a disease burden of growing importance and cost. However, estimates of the prevalence of multimorbidity (prevMM) vary widely across studies, impeding valid compariso...

Authors: Barbara M. Holzer, Klarissa Siebenhuener, Matthias Bopp and Christoph E. Minder

Establishing disability weights for congenital pediatric surgical conditions: a multi-modal approach

Burden of disease (BoD) as measured by Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) is one of the criteria for priority-setting in health care resource allocation. DALYs incorporate disability weights (DWs), which a...

Authors: D. Poenaru, J. Pemberton, C. Frankfurter, B. H. Cameron and E. Stolk

Incidence and survival of end-stage kidney disease due to polycystic kidney disease in Australia and New Zealand (1963–2014)

The aim of this study was to determine whether the incidence and survival of patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) due to polycystic kidney disease (PKD) has changed in Australia and New Zealand.

Authors: Mangalee R. Fernando, Hannah Dent, Stephen P. McDonald and Gopala K. Rangan

The share of ultra-processed foods and the overall nutritional quality of diets in the US: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study

Recent population dietary studies indicate that diets rich in ultra-processed foods, increasingly frequent worldwide, are grossly nutritionally unbalanced, suggesting that the dietary contribution of these foo...

Authors: Euridice Martínez Steele, Barry M. Popkin, Boyd Swinburn and Carlos A. Monteiro

Change in life expectancy with type 2 diabetes: a study using claims data from lower Saxony, Germany

This study estimates life expectancy with and without type 2 diabetes for individuals in Lower Saxony, Germany in order to detect a trend in population health.

Authors: Denise Muschik, Juliane Tetzlaff, Karin Lange, Jelena Epping, Sveja Eberhard and Siegfried Geyer

Does alcohol use have a causal effect on HIV incidence and disease progression? A review of the literature and a modeling strategy for quantifying the effect

In the first part of this review, the nature of the associations between alcohol use and HIV/AIDS is discussed. Alcohol use has been found to be strongly associated with incidence and progression of HIV/AIDS, ...

Authors: Jürgen Rehm, Charlotte Probst, Kevin D. Shield and Paul A. Shuper

Development and validation of an early childhood development scale for use in low-resourced settings

Low-cost, cross-culturally comparable measures of the motor, cognitive, and socioemotional skills of children under 3 years remain scarce. In the present paper, we aim to develop a new caregiver-reported early...

Authors: Dana Charles McCoy, Christopher R. Sudfeld, David C. Bellinger, Alfa Muhihi, Geofrey Ashery, Taylor E. Weary, Wafaie Fawzi and Günther Fink

Methodological choices affect cancer incidence rates: a cohort study

Incidence rates are fundamental to epidemiology, but their magnitude and interpretation depend on methodological choices. We aimed to examine the extent to which the definition of the study population affects ...

Authors: Hannah L. Brooke, Mats Talbäck, Maria Feychting and Rickard Ljung

Different survival analysis methods for measuring long-term outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian cancer patients in the presence and absence of competing risks

Net survival is the most common measure of cancer prognosis and has been used to study differentials in cancer survival between ethnic or racial population subgroups. However, net survival ignores competing ri...

Authors: Vincent Y. F. He, John R. Condon, Peter D. Baade, Xiaohua Zhang and Yuejen Zhao

Using multi-year national survey cohorts for period estimates: an application of weighted discrete Poisson regression for assessing annual national mortality in US adults with and without diabetes, 2000–2006

Monitoring national mortality among persons with a disease is important to guide and evaluate progress in disease control and prevention. However, a method to estimate nationally representative annual mortalit...

Authors: Yiling J. Cheng, Edward W. Gregg, Deborah B. Rolka and Theodore J. Thompson

The impact of individual-level heterogeneity on estimated infectious disease burden: a simulation study

Disease burden is not evenly distributed within a population; this uneven distribution can be due to individual heterogeneity in progression rates between disease stages. Composite measures of disease burden t...

Authors: Scott A. McDonald, Brecht Devleesschauwer and Jacco Wallinga

A new parametric model to assess delay and compression of mortality

A decrease in mortality across all ages causes a shift of the age pattern of mortality, or mortality delay, while differences in the rate of decrease across ages cause a change in the shape of the age-at-death...

Authors: Joop de Beer and Fanny Janssen

Diabetes incidence and projections from prevalence surveys in Fiji

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) incidence is traditionally derived from cohort studies that are not always feasible, representative, or available. The present study estimates T2DM incidence in Fijian adults fr...

Authors: Stephen Morrell, Sophia Lin, Isimeli Tukana, Christine Linhart, Richard Taylor, Penina Vatucawaqa, Dianna J Magliano and Paul Zimmet

A quantitative evidence base for population health: applying utilization-based cluster analysis to segment a patient population

To improve population health it is crucial to understand the different care needs within a population. Traditional population groups are often based on characteristics such as age or morbidities. However, this...

Authors: Sabine I. Vuik, Erik Mayer and Ara Darzi

Type 2 diabetes detection and management among insured adults

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 28.9 million adults had diabetes in 2012 in the US, though many patients are undiagnosed or not managing their condition. This study provides US na...

Authors: Timothy M. Dall, Weyna Yang, Pragna Halder, Jerry Franz, Erin Byrne, April P. Semilla, Ritashree Chakrabarti and Bruce Stuart

Trends, causes, and risk factors of mortality among children under 5 in Ethiopia, 1990–2013: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

Ethiopia has made remarkable progress in reducing child mortality over the last two decades. However, the under-5 mortality rate in Ethiopia is still higher than the under-5 mortality rates of several low- and...

Authors: Amare Deribew, Gizachew Assefa Tessema, Kebede Deribe, Yohannes Adama Melaku, Yihunie Lakew, Azmeraw T. Amare, Semaw F. Abera, Mesoud Mohammed, Abiy Hiruye, Efrem Teklay, Awoke Misganaw and Nicholas Kassebaum

Monitoring the prevalence of thyroid disorders in the adult population of Northeast Germany

Only a few studies like ours have investigated the effect of long-term stable iodine supply on thyroid disorders in a historically iodine-deficient population, but not with a long follow-up time of 10 years.

Authors: Rehman Mehmood Khattak, Till Ittermann, Matthias Nauck, Harald Below and Henry Völzke

A population study on the time trend of cigarette smoking, cessation, and exposure to secondhand smoking from 2001 to 2013 in Taiwan

In 2001, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) commenced in Taiwan. This survey, conducted on a sample of the whole Taiwanese population, is nationally representative and has a high response rate (>80 %)...

Authors: Chi-Yung Chiang and Hsing-Yi Chang

Alzheimer’s and other dementias in Canada, 2011 to 2031: a microsimulation Population Health Modeling (POHEM) study of projected prevalence, health burden, health services, and caregiving use

Worldwide, there is concern that increases in the prevalence of dementia will result in large demands for caregivers and supportive services that will be challenging to address. Previous dementia projections h...

Authors: Douglas G. Manuel, Rochelle Garner, Philippe Finès, Christina Bancej, William Flanagan, Karen Tu, Kim Reimer, Larry W. Chambers and Julie Bernier

Oral/dental items in the resident assessment instrument – minimum Data Set 2.0 lack validity: results of a retrospective, longitudinal validation study

Oral health in nursing home residents is poor. Robust, mandated assessment tools such as the Resident Assessment Instrument – Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) 2.0 are key to monitoring and improving quality of oral ...

Authors: Matthias Hoben, Jeffrey W. Poss, Peter G. Norton and Carole A. Estabrooks

The paradox of verbal autopsy in cause of death assignment: symptom question unreliability but predictive accuracy

We believe that it is important that governments understand the reliability of the mortality data which they have at their disposable to guide policy debates. In many instances, verbal autopsy (VA) will be the...

Authors: Peter Serina, Ian Riley, Bernardo Hernandez, Abraham D. Flaxman, Devarsetty Praveen, Veronica Tallo, Rohina Joshi, Diozele Sanvictores, Andrea Stewart, Meghan D. Mooney, Christopher J. L. Murray and Alan D. Lopez

What is the optimal recall period for verbal autopsies? Validation study based on repeat interviews in three populations

One key contextual feature in Verbal Autopsy (VA) is the time between death and survey administration, or recall period. This study quantified the effect of recall period on VA performance by using a paired da...

Authors: Peter Serina, Ian Riley, Bernardo Hernandez, Abraham D. Flaxman, Devarsetty Praveen, Veronica Tallo, Rohina Joshi, Diozele Sanvictores, Andrea Stewart, Meghan D. Mooney, Christopher J. L. Murray and Alan D. Lopez

Dynamic denominators: the impact of seasonally varying population numbers on disease incidence estimates

Reliable health metrics are crucial for accurately assessing disease burden and planning interventions. Many health indicators are measured through passive surveillance systems and are reliant on accurate esti...

Authors: Elisabeth zu Erbach-Schoenberg, Victor A. Alegana, Alessandro Sorichetta, Catherine Linard, Christoper Lourenço, Nick W. Ruktanonchai, Bonita Graupe, Tomas J. Bird, Carla Pezzulo, Amy Wesolowski and Andrew J. Tatem

The use of a lot quality assurance sampling methodology to assess and manage primary health interventions in conflict-affected West Darfur, Sudan

Organizations working in conflict-affected areas have a need to monitor and evaluate their programs, however this is often difficult due to the logistical challenges of conflict areas. Lot quality assurance sa...

Authors: Kiemanh Pham, Emily Chambers Sharpe, William M. Weiss and Alexander Vu

Ethnic differences in prevalence and risk factors for hypertension in the Suriname Health Study: a cross sectional population study

Limited information is available about the prevalence, ethnic disparities, and risk factors of hypertension within developing countries. We used data from a nationwide study on non-communicable disease (NCD) r...

Authors: Ingrid S. K. Krishnadath, Vincent W. V. Jaddoe, Lenny M. Nahar-van Venrooij and Jerry R. Toelsie

Infant mortality among the Canadian-born offspring of immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada: a population-based study

Adult immigrants in Canada have a survival advantage over their Canadian-born counterparts. It is unknown whether migrants are able to transmit their survival advantage to their Canadian-born children.

Authors: Zoua M. Vang

A feasibility study on using smartphones to conduct short-version verbal autopsies in rural China

Currently there are two main sources of mortality data with cause of death assignments in China. Both sources–the Ministry of Health-Vital Registration system and the Chinese Disease Surveillance Point system–...

Authors: Jing Zhang, Rohina Joshi, Jixin Sun, Samantha R. Rosenthal, Miao Tong, Cong Li, Rasika Rampatige, Meghan Mooney, Alan Lopez and Lijing L. Yan

Accuracy of self-reported height, weight, and waist circumference in a general adult Chinese population

Self-reported height, weight, and waist circumference (WC) are widely used to estimate the prevalence of obesity, which has been increasing rapidly in China, but there is limited evidence for the accuracy of s...

Authors: Shurong Lu, Jian Su, Quanyong Xiang, Jinyi Zhou and Ming Wu

Disparities in length of life across developed countries: measuring and decomposing changes over time within and between country groups

Over the past half century the global tendency for improvements in longevity has been uneven across countries. This has resulted in widening of inter-country disparities in life expectancy. Moreover, the patte...

Authors: Sergey Timonin, Vladimir M. Shkolnikov, Domantas Jasilionis, Pavel Grigoriev, Dmitry A. Jdanov and David A. Leon