Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis mortality, United States, 1979-2016: Vaccine-induced declines in SSPE deaths.

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by measles virus. We estimate SSPE age-specific mortality in the United States, 1979-2016. The general decline in SSPE mortality reflects that of measles.

"You've Come a Long Way, Baby": The Convergence in Age Patterns of Lung Cancer Mortality by Sex, United States, 1959-2013.

We analyze lung cancer mortality by age and sex in the United States, 1959-2013. It is already known that male lung cancer death rates exceed those of women and that tobacco use is the leading reason for the sex difference. We elaborate on this knowledge by showing that unlike most causes of death, lung cancer mortality patterns by age are a very good fit to a quadratic-Gompertz model, i.

Did the 1918 influenza cause the twentieth century cardiovascular mortality epidemic in the United States?

During most of the twentieth century, cardiovascular mortality increased in the United States while other causes of death declined. By 1958, the age-standardized death rate (ASDR) for cardiovascular causes for females was 1.84 times that for all other causes, (and, for males, 1.

A 'post-honeymoon' measles epidemic in Burundi: mathematical model-based analysis and implications for vaccination timing.

Using a mathematical model with realistic demography, we analyze a large outbreak of measles in Muyinga sector in rural Burundi in 1988-1989. We generate simulated epidemic curves and age × time epidemic surfaces, which we qualitatively and quantitatively compare with the data. Our findings suggest that supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) should be used in places where routine vaccination cannot keep up with the increasing numbers of susceptible individuals resulting from population growth or from logistical problems such as cold chain maintenance.

Clostridium difficile Infection: An Emerging Cause of Death in the Twenty-First Century.

Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile is major emerging cause of death in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2012, C.

Assessing the direct effects of the ebola outbreak on life expectancy in liberia, sierra leone and Guinea.

Background: An EVD outbreak may reduce life expectancy directly (due to high mortality among EVD cases) and indirectly (e.g., due to lower utilization of healthcare and subsequent increases in non-EVD mortality).

Influenza as a proportion of pneumonia mortality: United States, 1959-2009.

As causes of death, influenza and pneumonia are typically analyzed together. We quantify influenza's contribution to the combined pneumonia and influenza mortality time series for the United States, 1959-2009. A key statistic is I/(P + I), the proportion of pneumonia and influenza mortality accounted for by influenza.

Vitamin D (25OHD) Serum Seasonality in the United States.

Background: Vitamin D is an important micronutrient for health. Hypovitaminosis D is thought to play a role in the seasonality of a number of diseases and adverse health conditions. To refine hypotheses about the links between vitamin D and seasonal diseases, good estimates of the cyclicality of serum vitamin D are necessary.

Influenza mortality in the United States, 2009 pandemic: burden, timing and age distribution.

Background: In April 2009, the most recent pandemic of influenza A began. We present the first estimates of pandemic mortality based on the newly-released final data on deaths in 2009 and 2010 in the United States.

Methods: We obtained data on influenza and pneumonia deaths from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Immigrant health around the world: evidence from the World Values Survey.

We describe the relationship between immigrant status and self-rated health around the world, both in raw descriptive statistics and in models controlling for individual characteristics. Using the World Values Survey (1981-2005), we analyze data from 32 different countries worldwide. We estimate four regression models per country.

The 1918 influenza pandemic hastened the decline of tuberculosis in the United States: an age, period, cohort analysis.

The effect of the 1918 influenza pandemic on other diseases is a neglected topic in historical epidemiology. This paper takes up the hypothesis that the influenza pandemic affected the long-term decline of tuberculosis through selective mortality, such that many people with tuberculosis were killed in 1918, depressing subsequent tuberculosis mortality and transmission. Regularly collected vital statistics data on mortality of influenza and tuberculosis in the US are presented and analyzed demographically.

Cause of death affects racial classification on death certificates.

Recent research suggests racial classification is responsive to social stereotypes, but how this affects racial classification in national vital statistics is unknown. This study examines whether cause of death influences racial classification on death certificates. We analyze the racial classifications from a nationally representative sample of death certificates and subsequent interviews with the decedents' next of kin and find notable discrepancies between the two racial classifications by cause of death.

Testing the influenza-tuberculosis selective mortality hypothesis with Union Army data.

Using Cox regression, this paper shows a weak association between having tuberculosis and dying from influenza among Union Army veterans in late nineteenth-century America. It has been suggested elsewhere [Noymer, A. and M.