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Validity of self-reported weight, height, and body mass index among adult open university students in Thailand: Implications for population studies of obesity in developing countriesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Young educated Thais under-report weight and over-report height in ways similar to their counterparts in developed countries. Simple adjustments to BMI thresholds will overcome these reporting biases for estimation of obesity prevalence. Our study suggests that self-reported weights and heights can provide economical and valid measures of weight status in high school-educated populations in developing countries. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - September 24, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Lynette LimSam-ang SeubsmanAdrian Sleigh Source Type: journals

Diabetes prevalence and diagnosis in US states: analysis of health surveysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Diabetes prevalence is highest in the Southern and Appalachian states and lowest in the Midwest and the Northeast. Better diabetes diagnosis is needed in a number of states. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - September 24, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Goodarz DanaeiAri FriedmanShefali OzaChristopher MurrayMajid Ezzati Source Type: journals

The use of income information of census enumeration area as a proxy for the household income in a household surveyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The structure of agreement/disagreement between quintiles of the household's monthly per capita income and quintiles of the head-of-household's mean nominal monthly income of the CEA, as well as the results produced by these measures when they were associated with the nutritional status of the population, showed that the CEA's income information can be used when income information at the individual or household levels is not available. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - September 21, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Fabio GomesMauricio VasconcellosLuiz Anjos Source Type: journals

Are infant mortality rate declines exponential? The general pattern of 20th century infant mortality rate declineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The assumption that IMR declines are exponential is enshrined in the Preston curve and in nearly all cross-country as well as time series analyses of IMR data since Preston's 1975 paper, but this assumption is seldom correct. Statistical analyses of IMR trends should assess the robustness of findings to transformations other than the log transform. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 22, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: David BishaiMarjorie Opuni Source Type: journals

Serbia within the European context: An analysis of premature mortalityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: With a premature mortality pattern, Serbia is placed in the middle position of the Europe triangle. The main excess of YLL in Serbia was due to cardiovascular, malignant diseases, and diabetes mellitus. The results may be used for assessment of unacceptable social risks resulting from health inequalities. Within intentions to reduce an unfavourable premature mortality gap, it is necessary to reconsider certain local polices and practices as well as financial and human resources incorporated in the prevention of disease and injury burden. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 4, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Milena Santric MilicevicVesna BjegovicZorica TerzicDejana VukovicNikola KocevJelena MarinkovicVladimir Vasic Source Type: journals

Mortality attributable to excess adiposity in England and Wales in 2003 and 2015: explorations with a spreadsheet implementation of the Comparative Risk Assessment methodologyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Excess adiposity appears to contribute materially but modestly to mortality risks in England and Wales and this contribution is likely to increase in the future. Uncertainty centres on future trends of associated diseases, especially diabetes. The robustness of these estimates is limited by the lack of control for correlated risks by stratification and by the empirical uncertainty surrounding the effects of prolonged excess adiposity beginning before adulthood. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 29, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Christopher KellyNora PashayanSreetharan MunisamyJohn Powles Source Type: journals

The burden of disease and injury in Iran 2003Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The health and disease profile in Iran has made the transition from the dominance of communicable diseases to that of noncommunicable diseases and road traffic injuries. NBD results are to be used in health program planning, research, and resource allocation generation policies and practices. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 14, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Mohsen NaghaviFarid AbolhassaniFarshad PourmalekMaziar Moradi LakehNahid JafariSanaz VaseghiNiloufar Mahdavi HezavehHossein Kazemeini Source Type: journals

An average / deprivation / inequality (ADI) analysis of chronic disease outcomes and risk factors in ArgentinaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The application of the ADI framework enables identification of the regions or groups worst-off for each outcome measure under study. This can be used to highlight the variation embedded within national averages; as such, it encourages a social perspective on population health indicators that is particularly attuned to issues of inequity. The ADI framework is an important tool in the evaluation of policies aiming to prevent or control chronic non-communicable diseases. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 8, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Fernando De MaioBruno LinetzkyMario Virgolini Source Type: journals

Estimating the incidence of lung cancer attributable to occupational exposure in IranEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The incidence of lung cancer due to occupational exposure is low in Iran and, as in other countries, more lung cancer is due to occupational exposure among males than females. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - May 12, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Alireza Mosavi-Jarrahi, Mohammadali Mohagheghi, Bita Kalaghchi, Yasaman Mousavi-Jarrahi and Mohammad Kazem Noori Source Type: journals

Assessing the repeatability of verbal autopsy for determining cause of death: two case studies among women of reproductive age in Burkina Faso and IndonesiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: While these analyses do not address the validity of the VA process in absolute terms, repeatability is a prerequisite for intrinsic validity. This study thus adds new understanding to the quest for reliable cause of death assessment in communities lacking routine medical certification of deaths, and confirms the status of VA as an important and reliable tool at the community level, but perhaps less so at the individual level. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - May 5, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Peter Byass, Lucia D'Ambruoso, Moctar Ouedraogo and S NURUL Qomariyah Source Type: journals

Multiple primary tumours: incidence estimation in the presence of competing risksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The increased risk of a cancer of the corpus uteri, also observed in other studies, is usually interpreted as the common shared risk factors such as low parity, early menarche and late onset of menopause. We also grouped together those cancers possibly associated to a previous local radiotherapy: the cumulative risk at 14 years is still not significant, however the AJ estimators showed a significant risk peak between the eighth and the ninth year. Finally, the proposed approach has been shown to be reliable and informative under several aspects. It allowed for a correct estimation of the risk, and for investig...
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 1, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Stefano Rosso, Lea Terracini, Fulvio Ricceri and Roberto Zanetti Source Type: journals

Calculation of health expectancies with administrative data for North Rhine-Westphalia, a Federal State of Germany, 1999–2005Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Discussion and conclusionBoth health expectancies indicate an improvement in the quantity as well as in the quality of healthy life for the population living in North Rhine Westphalia and therefore suggest a compression of morbidity from 1999 to 2005. The findings however have several limitations in their sensitivity, since we applied dichotomous valuations to the health states. In addition, the results are restricted to comparisons over time because the morbidity concepts do not allow for comparisons with populations other than the German one. Refined calculations with other summary measures of population health and with ...
Source: Population Health Metrics - March 19, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Paulo Pinheiro and Alexander Krämer Source Type: journals

Calculation of Health Expectancies with Administrative Data for North Rhine-Westphalia, a Federal State of Germany, 1999-2005Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Discussion and conclusion Both health expectancies indicate an improvement in the quantity as well as in the quality of healthy life for the population living in North Rhine Westphalia and therefore suggest a compression of morbidity from 1999 to 2005. The findings however have several limitations in their sensitivity since we applied dichotomous valuations to the health states. In addition, the results are restricted to comparisons over time because the morbidity concepts do not allow for comparisons with populations other than German. Refined calculations with other summary measures of population health and with health d...
Source: Population Health Metrics - March 19, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Paulo Pinheiro and Alexander Kramer Source Type: journals

The episodic random utility model unifies time trade-off and discrete choice approaches in health state valuationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Episodic RUM expands upon the theoretical framework underlying health state valuation and contributes to health econometrics by motivating the selection of coefficient and exploded probit estimators for the analysis of TTO and rank responses. In future MVH surveys, sample size requirements may be reduced through the incorporation of multiple responses under a single estimator. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - January 13, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Benjamin M Craig and Jan J V Busschbach Source Type: journals

The association of state per capita income and military service deaths in the Vietnam and Iraq warsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: For military service members serving in the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts, there were many more women who died in the latter war. Whether war deaths resulted in lower per capita income cannot be determined from these cross sectional data; we simply note a strong association between per capita income and war casualty rates for both wars. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - January 6, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Charles Maynard Source Type: journals

A procedure to correct proxy-reported weight in the National Health Interview Survey, 1976-2002Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: It is imperative that researchers who use reported estimates of height and weight think carefully about flaws in their data and how existing correction procedures might fail to account for them. The development of this particular correction procedure represents an important step toward improving the quality of BMI estimates in a widely used source of epidemiologic data. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - January 6, 2009 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Eric N Reither and Rebecca L Utz Source Type: journals

Disability Adjusted Life Years and minimal disease: application of a preference-based relevance criterion to rank enteric pathogens.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Individual preferences elicited with the TTO from a population panel can be used to empirically derive a relevance criterion for burden of disease estimates. Application of this preference-based relevance criterion results in considerable changes in ranking of foodborne pathogens. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - December 29, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Juanita A Haagsma, Arie H Havelaar, Bas MF Janssen and Gouke J Bonsel Source Type: journals

Rescaling quality of life values from discrete choice experiments for use as QALYs: a cautionary taleEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Use of a statistical model such as conditional (multinomial) regression to anchor quality of life values from ordinal data to death is inappropriate in the presence of respondents who do not conform to the assumptions of conventional random utility theory. This is clearest when estimating values for that group of respondents observed in valuation samples who refuse to consider any living state to be worse than death: in such circumstances the model cannot be estimated. Only a valuation task requiring respondents to make choices in which both length and quality of life vary can produce estimates that properly r...
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 22, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Terry N Flynn, Jordan J Louviere, Anthony AJ Marley, Joanna Coast and Tim J Peters Source Type: journals

Using remotely sensed night-time light as a proxy for poverty in AfricaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Background: Population health is linked closely to poverty. To assess the effectiveness of health interventions it is critical to monitor the spatial and temporal changes in the health indicators of populations and outcomes across varying levels of poverty. Existing measures of poverty based on income, consumption or assets are difficult to compare across geographic settings and are expensive to construct. Remotely sensed data on artificial night time lights (NTL) have been shown to correlate with gross domestic product in developed countries. Methods: Using national household survey data, principal component analysis was ...
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 21, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Abdisalan M Noor, Victor A Alegana, Peter W Gething, Andrew J Tatem and Robert W Snow Source Type: journals

Maternal mortality in South Africa in 2001: From demographic census to epidemiological investigationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Demographic census microdata offer the opportunity to conduct an epidemiologic analysis of maternal mortality. In the case of South Africa, the level of MMR increased dramatically over the past 10 years, most likely because of HIV/AIDS. Indirect causes of maternal deaths appear much more important than direct obstetric causes. The MMR appears no longer to be a reliable measure of the quality of obstetric care or a measure of safe motherhood. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 21, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Michel Garenne, Robert McCaa and Kourtoum Nacro Source Type: journals

Maternal mortality in South Africa in 2001: from demographic census to epidemiological investigationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Demographic census microdata offer the opportunity to conduct an epidemiologic analysis of maternal mortality. In the case of South Africa, the level of MMR increased dramatically over the past 10 years, most likely because of HIV/AIDS. Indirect causes of maternal deaths appear much more important than direct obstetric causes. The MMR appears no longer to be a reliable measure of the quality of obstetric care or a measure of safe motherhood. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 21, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Michel Garenne, Robert McCaa and Kourtoum Nacro Source Type: journals

Cause of death in Washington state veterans hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes in the Veterans Health AdministrationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that it is important to consider secondary causes as well as the underlying one when classifying deaths as cardiac or non-cardiac. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - July 23, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Charles Maynard, Elliott Lowy, Mary McDonell and Stephan D Fihn Source Type: journals

Population survey sampling methods in a rural African setting: measuring mortalityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Sample surveys are able to provide useful demographic and health profiles of local populations. However, various parameters being measured and their distribution within the sampling unit of interest may not all be best represented by a particular sampling method. It is likely therefore that compromises may have to be made in choosing a sampling strategy, with costs, logistics the intended use of the data being important considerations. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - May 20, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Edward Fottrell and Peter Byass Source Type: journals

The burden of disease profile of residents of Nairobi's slums: Results from a Demographic Surveillance SystemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Slum residents in Nairobi have a high mortality burden from preventable and treatable conditions. It is necessary to focus on these vulnerable populations since their health outcomes are comparable to or even worse than the health outcomes of rural dwellers who are often the focus of most interventions. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - March 10, 2008 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Catherine Kyobutungi, Abdhalah Kasiira Ziraba, Alex Ezeh and Yazoume Ye Source Type: journals

DSS and DHS: longitudinal and cross-sectional viewpoints on child and adolescent mortality in EthiopiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Both DSS and DHS approaches to mortality surveillance gave similar overall results, but both showed method-dependent advantages and disadvantages. In many settings, this kind of joint-source data analysis could offer significant added value to results. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - December 27, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Peter Byass, Alemayehu Worku, Anders Emmelin and Yemane Berhane Source Type: journals

Modeling human papillomavirus and cervical cancer in the United States for analyses of screening and vaccinationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: We demonstrate an approach to parameterization, calibration and performance evaluation for a U.S. cervical cancer microsimulation model intended to provide qualitative and quantitative inputs into decisions that must be taken before long-term data on vaccination outcomes become available. This approach allows for a rigorous and comprehensive description of policy-relevant uncertainty about health outcomes under alternative cancer prevention strategies. The model provides a tool that can accommodate new information, and can be modified as needed, to iteratively assess the expected benefits, costs, and cost-effe...
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 29, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Jeremy D Goldhaber-Fiebert, Natasha K Stout, Jesse Ortendahl, Karen M Kuntz, Sue J Goldie and Joshua A Salomon Source Type: journals

Comparing the health of low income and less well educated groups in the United States and CanadaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: On average, population health in Canada and the US is similar. However, health disparities between Canadians and Americans exist at lower levels of education and income with Americans worse off. The results highlight the usefulness of continuous preference-based measures of population health such as the HUI3. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 16, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Ken Eng and David Feeny Source Type: journals

A six-year descriptive analysis of hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions among people born in refugee-source countriesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, preventable hospitalisation rates among people born in refugee-source countries were no higher than Australia-born population averages. More research is needed to elucidate whether low rates of preventable hospitalisation indicate better health status, appropriate health habits, timely and effective care-seeking behaviour and outpatient care, or overall low levels of health care-seeking due to other more pressing needs during the initial period of resettlement. It is important to unpack dimensions of health status and health care access in refugee populations through ad-hoc surveys ...
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 3, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Ignacio Correa-Velez, Zahid Ansari, Vijaya Sundararajan, Kaye Brown and Sandra M Gifford Source Type: journals

Model for estimating the population prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: cross sectional data from the Health Survey for EnglandEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The model can be used to estimate population prevalence of COPD from large general practices to national level, and as a tool to identify areas of high levels of unmet needs for COPD priority health actions. The results from the model highlight the importance of including variables other than age, sex and smoking, i.e. levels of deprivation, urbanisation and ethnicity, when estimating population prevalence of COPD. The model should be validated at local level and incorporated into case-finding strategies. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - September 26, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Luis C Nacul, Michael Soljak and Tom Meade Source Type: journals

Differential mortality in IranEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Substantial differences in survival exist among the provinces of Iran. While the completeness of the death registration system operated by the Iranian MOH&ME appears to be acceptable in the majority of provinces, further efforts are needed to improve the quality of data on mortality in Iran, and to expand death registration to Tehran province. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - July 28, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Ardeshir Khosravi, Richard Taylor, Mohsen Naghavi and Alan D Lopez Source Type: journals

Prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome in metropolitan, urban, and rural GeorgiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: We estimated that 2.54% of the Georgia population suffers from CFS, which is 6 to 10 fold higher than previous population-based estimates in other geographic areas. These differences may reflect broader screening criteria and differences in the application of the case definition, however we cannot exclude the possibility that CFS prevalence may be higher in Georgia than other areas where it has been measured. Although the study did not identify differences in overall prevalence between metropolitan, urban, and rural Georgia populations, it did suggest the need for additional stratified analyses by geographic s...
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 8, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: William C Reeves, James F Jones, Elizabeth Maloney, Christine Heim, David C Hoaglin, Roumiana S Boneva, Marjorie Morrissey and Rebecca Devlin Source Type: journals

How common is chronic fatigue syndrome; how long is a piece of string?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Commentary on Prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome in metropolitan, urban, and rural Georgia William C Reeves, James F Jones, Elizabeth Maloney, Christine Heim, David C Hoaglin, Roumiana S Boneva, Marjorie Morrissey and Rebecca Devlin (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 8, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Peter D White Source Type: journals

Descriptive epidemiology of selected birth defects, areas of Lombardy, Italy, 1999Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: This is the first population-based analysis on selected major birth defects in the Region. The high birth prevalence for septal heart defect and hypospadias are probably due to inclusion of minor defects and lack of coding standardization; the latter problem also seems important for other defects. However the data produced are useful for estimating the demands made on the health system by babies with birth defects. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - May 25, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Giovanna Tagliabue, Roberto Tessandori, Fausta Caramaschi, Sabrina Fabiano, Anna Maghini, Andrea Tittarelli, Daniele Vergani, Maria Bellotti, Salvatore Pisani, Maria Letizia Gambino, Emanuela Frassoldi, Enrica Costa, Daniela Gada, Paolo Crosignani and Pao Source Type: journals

Investigating the spatial risk distribution of West Nile virus disease in birds and humans in southern Ontario from 2002 to 2005Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The study indicates a significant relationship between the spatial pattern of WNv risk in humans and birds. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - May 1, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Heidi Beroll, Olaf Berke, Jeffrey Wilson and Ian K Barker Source Type: journals

Revealing the burden of maternal mortality: a probabilistic model for determining pregnancy-related causes of death from verbal autopsiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: InterVA-M represents a potentially valuable new tool for measuring maternal mortality in an efficient, consistent and standardised way. Further development, refinement and validation are planned. It could become a routine tool in research and service settings where levels and changes in pregnancy-related deaths need to be measured, for example in assessing progress towards MDG-5. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - February 8, 2007 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Edward Fottrell, Peter Byass, Thomas W Ouedraogo, Cecile Tamini, Adjima Gbangou, Issiaka Sombie, Ulf Hogberg, Karen H Witten, Sohinee Bhattacharya, Teklay Desta, Sylvia Deganus, Janet Tornui, Ann E Fitzmaurice, Nicolas Meda and Wendy J Graham Source Type: journals

An ecometric analysis of neighbourhood cohesionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Assessment of the properties of the adapted neighbourhood cohesion scale using factor analysis and ecometric analysis extended to an ordinal scale has shown that the items allow fine discrimination between individuals. However, large sample sizes are needed in order to accurately estimate contextual neighbourhood cohesion. The scale is therefore appropriate for use in the measurement of neighbourhood cohesion at small-area-level in future studies of neighbourhoods and health. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - December 21, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: David L Fone, Daniel M Farewell and Frank Dunstan Source Type: journals

Improving knowledge about disability transitions by adding retrospective information to panel surveys. Population Health MetricsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that the value of future panel studies for estimating transitions in disability could be notably enhanced by adding a small number of questions asking respondents for details about their disabilities--and lack of disabilities--in the period since a preceding survey wave. Information provided by such questions could substantially improve both the measurement of disability histories and estimates of disability processes. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - December 13, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: James N. Laditka and Douglas A Wolf Source Type: journals

Hypnotic use in a population-based sample of over thirty-five thousand interviewed CanadiansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The observation that benzodiazepine use is more frequent in women, increases with age and is higher in low income and education groups supports previous findings. These results help to confirm that these differences are not accounted for by psychiatric diagnoses. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - November 24, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Aliya Kassam and Scott B Patten Source Type: journals

Deriving utility scores for co-morbid conditions: A test of the multiplicative model for combining individual condition scoresEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
No abstract available (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - October 31, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: William Flanagan, Cameron N McIntosh, Christel Le Petit and Jean-Marie Berthelot Source Type: journals

Burden of premature mortality in rural Vietnam from 1999 – 2003: analyses from a Demographic Surveillance SiteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The combination of localised demographic surveillance, verbal autopsy and the application of YLL methods enable new insights into the magnitude and importance of significant public health issues in settings where evidence for planning is otherwise scarce. Local mortality data vary considerably from the WHO model-based estimates. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 8, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Dao Lan Huong, Hoang Van Minh, Theo Vos, Urban Janlert, Do Duc Van and Peter Byass Source Type: journals

Burden of premature mortality in rural Vietnam from 1999 - 2003: analyses from a Demographic Surveillance SiteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion. The combination of localised demographic surveillance, verbal autopsy and the application of YLL methods enable new insights into the magnitude and importance of significant public health issues in settings where evidence for planning is otherwise scarce. Local mortality data vary considerably from the WHO model-based estimates. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - August 8, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Huong Dao Lan, Minh Hoang Van, Vos Theo, Janlert Urban, Van Do Duc and Byass Peter Source Type: journals

Predictors of self-rated health: A 12-month prospective study of IT and media workersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that baseline SRH and other self-ratings are predictive of future SRH. It is cautiously implied that SRH, self-esteem, social support, sleep quality and sense of coherence might be predictors of future SRH and therefore possibly also of various future health outcomes. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - July 31, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Dan Hasson, Bengt B Arnetz, Tores Theorell and Ulla Maria Anderberg Source Type: journals

Transition to the new race/ethnicity data collection standards in the Department of Veterans AffairsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: For overall VA healthcare users, the agreement between observer-recorded and self-reported race/ethnicity was excellent and observer-recorded and self-reported data can be used together for multi-year trends without creating serious bias. However, this study also showed that observation was not a reliable method of race/ethnicity data collection for non-African American minorities and racial disparity might be underestimated if observer-recorded data are used due to systematic patterns of inaccurate race/ethnicity assignments. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - July 6, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Min-Woong Sohn, Huiyuan Zhang, Noreen Arnold, Kevin Stroupe, Brent C Taylor, Timothy J Wilt and Denise M Hynes Source Type: journals

Place-of-residence errors on death certificates for two contiguous U. S. countiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated a large error rate (14%) in recording county of residence for deaths in one county. A similar rate was not seen in an adjacent county. We believe that errors may have arisen in part from use of internet programs by funeral homes to assign the county of residence. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - June 26, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: John R Pierce and Anne V Dension Source Type: journals

Diabetes and urbanization in the Omani population: an analysis of national survey dataEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: A high prevalence of diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol exist in the Omani population, particularly among urban-dwellers and older individuals. It is vital to continue monitoring chronic disease in Oman and to direct public health policy towards preventing an epidemic. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 24, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Siba Al-Moosa, Sara Allin, Nadia Jemiai, Jawad Al-Lawati and Elias Mossialos Source Type: journals

Severity of self-reported diseases and symptoms in DenmarkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: In 1994 the Danes most frequently reported musculoskeletal symptoms and diseases. Psychiatric disorders and respiratory diseases were identified as the most severe reported diseases. Due to the interaction between socio-economic status and some diseases, severity estimates should be interpreted with caution or stratified by socio-economic groups. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 18, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Kim Moesgaard Iburg, Niels Kristian Rasmussen and Kirsten Avlund Source Type: journals

Adjusting for dependent comorbidity in the calculation of healthy life expectancyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that dependent comorbidity is important, and that adjustment for it makes a significant difference to resulting HALE estimates for some regions of the world. Given the data limitations, we recommend a normative adjustment based on the available evidence, and applied consistently across all countries. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 18, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Colin D Mathers, Kim M Iburg and Stephen Begg Source Type: journals

Disability weights for comorbidity and their influence on Health-adjusted Life ExpectancyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusions: The differences in HALE caused by the different adjustment methods demonstrate that adjusting for comorbidity in HALE calculations is an important topic that deserves more attention. More empirical research is needed to develop a more general theory as to how comorbidity influences disability. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 10, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Pieter HM van Baal, Nancy Hoeymans, Rudolf T Hoogenveen, G Ardine de Wit and Gert P Westert Source Type: journals

Accuracy and completeness of mortality data in the Department of Veterans AffairsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: The BIRLS Death File is not an adequate source of mortality data for the VA population due to incompleteness. When the four sources of mortality data are carefully combined, the resulting dataset can provide more timely data for death ascertainment than the National Death Index and has comparable accuracy and completeness. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - April 10, 2006 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Min-Woong Sohn, Noreen Arnold, Charles Maynard and Denise M Hynes Source Type: journals

Describing the longitudinal course of major depression using Markov models: Data integration across three national surveysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Conclusion: Markov models provide a framework for integrating psychiatric epidemiological data. Previous studies have illustrated the utility of Markov models for decomposing prevalence into its various determinants: incidence, recovery and mortality. This study extends the Markov approach by distinguishing several recurrence categories. (Source: Population Health Metrics)
Source: Population Health Metrics - November 15, 2005 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Scott B Patten and Robert C Lee Source Type: journals