Gender differences in the incidence, characteristics and hospital admission outcomes of fall-related injuries in older adults in Victoria, Australia, over 5 years from 2018/19 to 2022/23.

Background: Falls are the leading cause of injury morbidity and mortality in older adults. This study aimed to: (1) Explore gender differences in falls injury incidence and outcomes in Victoria, Australia; and (2) Test if these differences are explained by patient demographics and clinical complexity.

Method: Fall-related injury admissions records from 1-JULY-2018 to 30-JUNE-2023 were extracted from the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset.

International Classification of Disease based Injury Severity Score (ICISS): a comparison of methodologies applied to linked data from New South Wales, Australia.

Background: The International Classification of Disease Injury Severity Score (ICISS) provides an efficient method to determine injury severity in hospitalised injury patients. Injury severity metrics are of particular interest for the tracking of road transport injury rates and trends. The aims of this study were to calculate ICISS using linked morbidity and mortality datasets and to compare predictive ability of various methods and metrics.

Assessing the quality of emergency department data for injury surveillance in Victoria, Australia: a comparative analysis of two Victorian hospital data sources.

Objective: The emergency department (ED) is pivotal in treating serious injuries, making it a valuable source for population-based injury surveillance. In Victoria, information that is relevant to injury surveillance is collected in the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD). This study aims to assess the data quality of the VEMD as an injury data source by comparing it with the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED).

The impact of iterative removal of low-information cluster-period cells from a stepped wedge design.

Background: Standard stepped wedge trials, where clusters switch from the control to the intervention condition in a staggered manner, can be costly and burdensome. Recent work has shown that the amount of information contributed by each cluster in each period differs, with some cluster-periods contributing a relatively small amount of information. We investigate the patterns of the information content of cluster-period cells upon iterative removal of low-information cells, assuming a model for continuous outcomes with constant cluster-period size, categorical time period effects, and exchangeable and discrete-time decay intracluster correlation structures.

How representative is the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) for population-based injury surveillance in Victoria? A retrospective observational study of administrative healthcare data.

Objective: The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) is a key data resource for injury surveillance. The VEMD collects emergency department data from 39 public hospitals across Victoria; however, rural emergency care services are not well captured. The aim of this study is to determine the representativeness of the VEMD for injury surveillance.

Evaluation of COVID-19 Treatments in Iran in Comparison with Local Therapeutic Recommendations: A Population-Level Study on Utilization and Costs of Prescription Drugs.

Objective: In this study, we assess population-level data of COVID-19 treatments in Iran compared to Ministry of Health (MOH)-published guidelines to gain a better insight into the quality of care for this disease.

Methods: National sales data of each recommended and nonrecommended COVID-19 medicine were used to proxy utilization between March 21, 2020, and March 21, 2021, or Iranian year 1399. COVID-19-attributed sales volume and number of patients were estimated by adjusting sales data with pre-COVID-19 average growth rate, recommended dose, and duration of treatment.

Use of information criteria for selecting a correlation structure for longitudinal cluster randomised trials.

Background: When designing and analysing longitudinal cluster randomised trials, such as the stepped wedge, the similarity of outcomes from the same cluster must be accounted for through the choice of a form for the within-cluster correlation structure. Several choices for this structure are commonly considered for application within the linear mixed model paradigm. The first assumes a constant intra-cluster correlation for all pairs of outcomes from the same cluster (the exchangeable/Hussey and Hughes model); the second assumes that correlations of outcomes measured in the same period are higher than outcomes measured in different periods (the block exchangeable model) and the third is the discrete-time decay model, which allows the correlation between pairs of outcomes to decay over time.

Level and trend of total plasma cholesterol in national and subnational of Iran: a systematic review and age-spatio-temporal analysis from 1990 to 2016.

Purpose: We aimed to estimate the level and trend of plasma cholesterol and raised total cholesterol (TC > 200 mg/dl) prevalence at national and subnational level of Iran.

Methods: Nine national surveys and 27 studies, encompassing 3,505 unique points on over 500,000 adults, aged > 25 years with a report of laboratory measurement of TC were found. Age-spatio-temporal model and Gaussian Process Regression were used to estimate mean TC for each sex, 5-year age groups, and 31 provinces from 1990 to 2016.

Evaluating equality in prescribing Novel Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs) in England: The protocol of a Bayesian small area analysis.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting about 1.6% of the population in England. Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are approved AF treatments that reduce stroke risk.

A Double-Blind, Randomized Comparison Study between Zytux™ vs MabThera® in Treatment of CLL with FCR Regimen: Non-Inferiority Clinical Trial.

Background: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by accumulation of B cells in blood, lymphoid tissues and bone marrow. Addition of rituximab to CLL chemotherapy regimens has been associated with improved survival. The aim of this study was to establish efficacy and safety of Zytux™ in comparison to MabThera in treatment of CLL.

Prevalence of cardio-metabolic risk factors in a nationally representative sample of Iranian adolescents: The CASPIAN-III Study.

The aim of the present study is to explore the prevalence and mean of cardiometabolic risk factors and liver enzymes of Iranian adolescents living in regions with different socioeconomic status (SES). To the best of our knowledge this is the first study reporting these data at sub-national level in Iran. This multi-centric study was performed in 2009-2010 on a stratified multi-stage probability sample of 5940 students aged 10-18 years, living in urban and rural areas of 27 provinces of Iran.

Detecting Diseases in Medical Prescriptions Using Data Mining Tools and Combining Techniques.

Data about the prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, as one of the most important categories of epidemiological data, is used for interpreting health status of communities. This study aims to calculate the prevalence of outpatient diseases through the characterization of outpatient prescriptions. The data used in this study is collected from 1412 prescriptions for various types of diseases from which we have focused on the identification of ten diseases.

Wealth-related Inequality in Utilization of Antihypertensive Medicines in Iran: an Ecological Study on Population Level Data.

Background: We aim to evaluate the trend of national and sub-national (provincial) utilization pattern of antihypertensive medicines in the Iranian population in the past decade and evaluate whether there is any wealth-related inequality in utilization of these medicines among different provinces.

Method: Either fixed effect or random effect linear panel data model was used to check the effect of wealth index on utilization of all antihypertensive medicines and each class, adjusting for other covariates including years of schooling, urbanization, mean age, and food type of provinces. The principal component analysis was applied to make summery measures for covariates using available national datasets.

Evaluation of productivity in Iranian pharmaceutical companies: A DEA-based Malmquist approach and panel data analysis.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to assess comparative productivity of 21 pharmaceutical companies in Iran during 2000-2013.

Methods: To evaluate the productivity trend of pharmaceutical companies in Iran, we used data envelopment analysis-based Malmquist index. "Total assets" and "capital stock" as inputs and "net sales" and "net profit" as outputs extracted from Tehran stock exchange, were selected to be included in the analysis.

Comparison of two data mining techniques in labeling diagnosis to Iranian pharmacy claim dataset: artificial neural network (ANN) versus decision tree model.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the prediction accuracy of two data mining techniques, including decision tree and neural network models in labeling diagnosis to gastrointestinal prescriptions in Iran.

Methods: This study was conducted in three phases: data preparation, training phase, and testing phase. A sample from a database consisting of 23 million pharmacy insurance claim records, from 2004 to 2011 was used, in which a total of 330 prescriptions were assessed and used to train and test the models simultaneously.

National and sub-national prevalence, trend, and burden of asthma in Iran from 1990 to 2013; the study protocol.

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease caused or worsened by environmental factors in genetically vulnerable people. The study of national and sub-national burden of asthma aims to provide a quantitative method and valid estimates for the prevalence, incidence, and economic burden of asthma disease in Iran from 1990 to 2013 and this papers explains measures, data sources, methods, and challenges that we will use in the study.

Methods: In order to conduct this study, we will use all available unpublished data sources, including claim databases and data collected by the food and drug organization (FDO).

Is amyloid-β an innocent bystander and marker in Alzheimer's disease? Is the liability of multivalent cation homeostasis and its influence on amyloid-β function the real mechanism?

Two decades of the amyloid-β (Aβ) hypothesis in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the prominence of Aβ-targeting strategies have yet to meet the levels of original expectation. Disappointing results in numerous Phase II/III studies have called for a re-examination of the validity of the Aβ-targeting approaches as an intervention strategy in AD. The mid-life onset of chronic conditions (e.

Application of Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) in estimating under-five mortality levels and trends in Iran 1990 - 2013, study protocol.

Background: Searching for the latest methods of estimating mortality rates is a major concern for researchers who are working in burden of diseases. Child mortality is an important indicator for assessing population health care services in a country. The National and Sub-national Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (NASBOD) is conducted in Iran with comparative methods and definitions of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 to estimate major population health measures including child mortality rate.

The trend of national and sub-national burden of gastrointestinal and liver diseases in Iran 1990 to 2013; study protocol.

Background: It is expected that gastrointestinal (GI) and liver diseases inflict considerable burden on health systems in Iran; therefore, highlighting the significance of GI disorders across the other most burdensome diseases requires comprehensive assessment and regular updates of the statistics of such diseases in Iran.

Objective: To assess in-depth sub-national estimates and trends for the incidence and prevalence of selected GI and liver diseases by age, gender and province over the period 1990 - 2013 in Iran.

Methods: This is a national and sub-national burden of disease study on 21 GI diseases using all available data sources, including cancer registry, death registration system data, hospital data, and all available published data.