Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge?
Background: Burden of Disease (BoD) studies use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a population health metric to quantify the years of life lost due to morbidity and premature mortality for diseases, injuries and risk factors occurring in a region or a country. Small countries usually face a...
Published in: | Archives of Public Health |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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BioMed Central Ltd.
2021
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/80052 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z |
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ftunivmalta:oai:www.um.edu.mt:123456789/80052 |
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record_format |
openpolar |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Malta: OAR@UM |
op_collection_id |
ftunivmalta |
language |
English |
topic |
Health status indicators -- Europe Mortality -- Europe -- Data processing Diseases -- Europe -- Data processing Europe -- Statistics Medical Primary health care -- Europe -- Data processing States Small -- Case studies Diseases -- Malta -- Data processing |
spellingShingle |
Health status indicators -- Europe Mortality -- Europe -- Data processing Diseases -- Europe -- Data processing Europe -- Statistics Medical Primary health care -- Europe -- Data processing States Small -- Case studies Diseases -- Malta -- Data processing Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Terzic, Natasa Alkerwi, Ala'a Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Devleesschauwer, Brecht Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
topic_facet |
Health status indicators -- Europe Mortality -- Europe -- Data processing Diseases -- Europe -- Data processing Europe -- Statistics Medical Primary health care -- Europe -- Data processing States Small -- Case studies Diseases -- Malta -- Data processing |
description |
Background: Burden of Disease (BoD) studies use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a population health metric to quantify the years of life lost due to morbidity and premature mortality for diseases, injuries and risk factors occurring in a region or a country. Small countries usually face a number of challenges to conduct epidemiological studies, such as national BoD studies, due to the lack of specific expertise and resources or absence of adequate data. Considering Europe’s small countries of Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta and Montenegro, the aim was to assess whether the various national data sources identified are appropriate to perform national BoD studies. Main body: The five small countries have a well-established mortality registers following the ICD10 classification, which makes calculation of years of life lost (YLL) feasible. A number of health information data sources were identified in each country, which can provide prevalence data for the calculation of years lived with disability (YLD) for various conditions. These sources include disease-specific registers, hospital discharge data, primary health care data and epidemiological studies, provided by different organisations such as health directorates, institutes of public health, statistical offices and other bodies. Hence, DALYs can be estimated at a national level through the combination of the YLL and YLD information. On the other hand, small countries face unique challenges such as difficulty to ensure sample representativeness, variations in prevalence estimates especially for rarer diseases, existence of a substantial proportion of non-residents affiliated to healthcare systems and potential exclusion from some European or international initiatives. Recently established BoD networks may provide a platform for small countries to share experiences, expertise, and engage with countries and institutions that have long-standing experience with BoD assessment. Conclusion: Apart from mortality registries, adequate health data sources, notably for cancer, are potentially available at the small states to perform national BoD studies. Investing in sharing expert knowledge through engagement of researchers in BoD networks can enable the conduct of country specific BoD studies and the establishment of more accurate DALYs estimates. Such estimates can enable local policymakers to reflect on the relative burden of the different conditions that are contributing to morbidity and mortality at a country level. peer-reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Terzic, Natasa Alkerwi, Ala'a Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Devleesschauwer, Brecht |
author_facet |
Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Terzic, Natasa Alkerwi, Ala'a Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Devleesschauwer, Brecht |
author_sort |
Cuschieri, Sarah |
title |
Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
title_short |
Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
title_full |
Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
title_fullStr |
Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? |
title_sort |
conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in europe - a feasible challenge? |
publisher |
BioMed Central Ltd. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/80052 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Cuschieri, S., Pallari, E., Terzic, N., Alkerwi, A. A., Sigurvinsdottir, R., Sigfusdottir, I. D., & Devleesschauwer, B. (2021). Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe–a feasible challenge?. Archives of Public Health, 79(1), 1-6. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/80052 doi:10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess The copyright of this work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z |
container_title |
Archives of Public Health |
container_volume |
79 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766043633467785216 |
spelling |
ftunivmalta:oai:www.um.edu.mt:123456789/80052 2023-05-15T16:53:07+02:00 Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe - a feasible challenge? Cuschieri, Sarah Pallari, Elena Terzic, Natasa Alkerwi, Ala'a Sigurvinsdottir, Rannveig Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora Devleesschauwer, Brecht 2021 https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/80052 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z en eng BioMed Central Ltd. Cuschieri, S., Pallari, E., Terzic, N., Alkerwi, A. A., Sigurvinsdottir, R., Sigfusdottir, I. D., & Devleesschauwer, B. (2021). Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe–a feasible challenge?. Archives of Public Health, 79(1), 1-6. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/80052 doi:10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess The copyright of this work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. Health status indicators -- Europe Mortality -- Europe -- Data processing Diseases -- Europe -- Data processing Europe -- Statistics Medical Primary health care -- Europe -- Data processing States Small -- Case studies Diseases -- Malta -- Data processing article 2021 ftunivmalta https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00599-z 2021-10-16T18:02:45Z Background: Burden of Disease (BoD) studies use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a population health metric to quantify the years of life lost due to morbidity and premature mortality for diseases, injuries and risk factors occurring in a region or a country. Small countries usually face a number of challenges to conduct epidemiological studies, such as national BoD studies, due to the lack of specific expertise and resources or absence of adequate data. Considering Europe’s small countries of Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta and Montenegro, the aim was to assess whether the various national data sources identified are appropriate to perform national BoD studies. Main body: The five small countries have a well-established mortality registers following the ICD10 classification, which makes calculation of years of life lost (YLL) feasible. A number of health information data sources were identified in each country, which can provide prevalence data for the calculation of years lived with disability (YLD) for various conditions. These sources include disease-specific registers, hospital discharge data, primary health care data and epidemiological studies, provided by different organisations such as health directorates, institutes of public health, statistical offices and other bodies. Hence, DALYs can be estimated at a national level through the combination of the YLL and YLD information. On the other hand, small countries face unique challenges such as difficulty to ensure sample representativeness, variations in prevalence estimates especially for rarer diseases, existence of a substantial proportion of non-residents affiliated to healthcare systems and potential exclusion from some European or international initiatives. Recently established BoD networks may provide a platform for small countries to share experiences, expertise, and engage with countries and institutions that have long-standing experience with BoD assessment. Conclusion: Apart from mortality registries, adequate health data sources, notably for cancer, are potentially available at the small states to perform national BoD studies. Investing in sharing expert knowledge through engagement of researchers in BoD networks can enable the conduct of country specific BoD studies and the establishment of more accurate DALYs estimates. Such estimates can enable local policymakers to reflect on the relative burden of the different conditions that are contributing to morbidity and mortality at a country level. peer-reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland University of Malta: OAR@UM Archives of Public Health 79 1 |